


Walking on Tightropes

by 1overcosc



Category: Deus Ex (Video Games), Deus Ex: Mankind Divided
Genre: Action/Adventure, Anal Sex, Bisexual Male Character, Blow Jobs, Conspiracy intrigue, Double agent woes, M/M, Mac is bold, Multiple Orgasms, Power Play, Slow Burn, Spoilers for Black Light, Spoilers for System Rift DLC, servicing
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-03-12
Updated: 2017-05-15
Packaged: 2018-10-02 19:10:49
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 25,678
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10225133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/1overcosc/pseuds/1overcosc
Summary: Adam Jensen, counter-terrorism agent for Task Force 29, determined to save lives from terrorist rampage... and Adam Jensen, of the Juggernaut Collective, determined to stop the Illuminati. Playing two roles is never easy. Especially when a certain someone worms his way into your heart.





	1. Introduction

**Author's Note:**

> Post London. Assumes Adam got Spokes in Two Wheels achievement & saved Miller (the "perfect ending"). Been working on this for weeks, the intro arc is finally in a state where I'm ready to upload. It's a lot more action/adventure and a lot less hurt/comfort than I originally thought it would be, so that's what I tagged it as. Might shift to including more of the latter over time.. not sure.
> 
> Rated E for future chapters. I have the feeling it's going to end up being a pretty long story, judging by my outlines and how much word count I'm getting out of each jot note.

_November 12 th, 2029 – Prague, Czech Republic_

“Ah, Agent Jensen.. the man of the hour!” boomed Miller as everyone clapped. Even grumpy MacReady clapped.

It wasn't often that people cheered in the TF29 briefing room. Most of the time, the mood was negative. A mission had failed. Yet another nasty terrorist attack. Grim-faced staff from IT reporting on yet another hactivist attack.

But not today. TF29's Central European Counter-Terrorism Team had just returned from a very successful mission in London, where they successfully thwarted the efforts of Viktor Marchenko, who attempted to poison numerous VIPs at Brown's Safe Harbour Convention including Brown himself. And it was no small miracle either. They had very little intel available going into the mission, and so many things went wrong at first. Marchenko complicated things by threatening to blow up a residential tower complex, and Miller himself almost died. But everything worked out in the end.. and it was all thanks to agent Adam Jensen, who singlehandedly saved everyone and thwarted all of Marchenko's schemes.

To Adam Jensen himself, however, things weren't quite so peachy. Adam knew all of this was the work of the Illuminati, the shadowy organization hell bent on ruling the world. And it wasn't the first time Adam had bumped into the Illuminati's ruthlessness, either. He nearly died in an Illuminati-orchestrated attack two years ago, watched as an Illuminati member plunged the world into the horrific Aug Incident, and saw how they effortlessly spun the news to create the climate of prejudice and bigotry against the augmented. While he may have put an end to Marchenko, Adam knew he hadn't seen the last of the Illuminati and their diabolical schemes... and he shuddered at the thought of how many more Marchenkos he may have to deal with in the future.

“ _You've been under too long,_ _man._ _Time to come up for some air. Take a breath._ ” Those were the words Alex, his fellow Juggernaut Collective operative, had told him earlier that day when he relayed this concern to her. Funny.. as a Collective operative, you'd think she'd understand.

Sometimes Adam envied the rest of his TF29 co-workers. _They_ weren't double agents working for both TF29 and one of their biggest enemies, the Collective. They were all blissfully unaware of the Illuminati. So it was natural that to them, this was indeed a day worth celebrating.

So Adam feigned a look of happiness as the entire Counter-Terrorism Team gave him a standing ovation in their briefing room.

“Glad I could help, and that we all made it out in one piece. It was dicey for a while.”

MacReady was first to respond. “Come off it Jensen, you did a lot more than just help. You basically did the whole damn mission yourself.”

“Not to mention, you saved my ass. Disobeying my orders to leave me be, I may add,” said Miller.

“There's no way I could let you die in the field. Or anyone else. I don't let people die if I can help it.”

“Including Marchenko. Thanks to you, we managed to capture him alive and the powers that be can get the information we need from him.”

“I think it's great that with all those powerful augs you've still got the ability to keep restrained in the heat of battle,” Aria praised. “You really are a model for all of us.”

The praise made Adam mildly uncomfortable... he was relieved when Miller spoke up.

“Now, we need to do a thorough post-mortem. The mission may have ended well thanks to Jensen, but plenty of things went wrong during it. I need everyone to file their after-action reports by Friday. NO excuses.”

A slight groan filled the air as the agents filed out of the room. Field agents thrived.. well, in the field. Not in the office doing paperwork

 

* * *

 

 “Make sure you actually file your after-action report this time, Jensen.”

“Don't worry, MacReady. I actually have a good reason to it this time.”

“You mean, a reason other than _your boss asking you do to it_?”

“Ya. Tarvos. There's something suspicious about them. I think they're connected to this. It's obvious Marchenko's men posed as Tarvos guards. But something about Tarvos is off. They keep coming up in situations like this..”

“You know, Jensen, I actually think you're on to something. They say they distanced themselves from Belltower but it doesn't seem that way sometimes.”

Adam was surprised. “Really? You actually think I'm right?”

“Look.... yes, we've had our problems in the past, but you've more than proven yourself. You were right about Marchenko being the bad guy, ever since you first met him. You've got good instincts, I'll give you that. And I've never trusted Tarvos, not since the day they formed.”

Adam nodded in agreement. “I've had way too many run-ins with Belltower to trust anything connected to them.”

A look of curiosity came across MacReady's face. “Run-ins? In America? I thought Belltower didn't operate in America.”

Adam hesitated. He didn't want to reveal too much about his past. “No they didn't, but my work with Sarif brought me all over the place,” was the careful answer that came out.

“All over.. Australia, by any chance?” MacReady pressed.

“China. Ended up there a few times. And let's just say, Belltower and I weren't very friendly with each other there.”

“Hmm...” MacReady muttered. “Well.. best get to it. The report isn't going to file itself. Later, Jensen.”

Adam felt a twinge of nervousness. Bringing up China seemed to get MacReady intrigued. Knowing him, MacReady would start digging stuff up. Who knows what he might end up finding... Adam tried to keep his past under wraps, but when you work in a place full of secret agents, that can be hard.

Taking a deep breath, Adam decided what he had to do. He walked down the hallway into the bathroom, activated his Glass Shield cloak, headed back down the hall, and scampered into a vent shaft he knew could lead him into MacReady's office. Sure, the cloak might have been overkill, but he didn't want to risk Chang catching him climbing into the vent on camera.

The vent systems in the TF29 office were complicated and full of toxic gases, but this wasn't the first time Adam used them, so it did not take him long to make his way up to a vent opening, high up in MacReady's office, which offered a direct view of MacReady's monitor. It was all the way across the room but when you have augmented vision such things weren't a problem.

Sure enough, his team leader was busy scrolling through pages of search results about him. Adam stared with bated breath. He was positive that TF29 had at least a few Illuminati agents lurking about, but he didn't think MacReady was one of them. Still...

MacReady found a Chinese government report (instantly translated by the software on MacReady's computer) about that time his old pilot Malik almost got killed. Apparently Jensen's name was mentioned somewhere in there...

Then a picture of Adam popped up—from an arrest warrant that Belltower issued for him in Hengsha.

What happened next was something Adam would have never predicted.


	2. Well that's a Surprise

_November 12 th, 2029 – Prague, Czech Republic_

There he was. Agent MacReady, reading through an old Chinese arrest warrant with Adam Jensen's name and photo on it, while Adam spied on him through the vents.

A weird sort of noise came out of MacReady's mouth when he saw the picture. His right hand left the keyboard and... _started undoing the zipper on his pants_.

Adam's jaw dropped in shock as MacReady whipped out his dick and started furiously stroking it with his right hand, while zooming in on the photograph of Adam with his left hand.

He had absolutely no idea MacReady was into guys. He gave no indication of that, and he had been married three times in the past, all to women. Well, maybe that's why his marriages failed... but then again, in a few weeks it would be 2030. Gay men pretending to be straight and marrying women belonged to another era.

“ _He's probably bi then, like me._ ” Jensen thought to himself.

If this was three years ago, Adam would have been tempted to watch him finish. But with all that happened to him in the last few years, plus not really being over Megan yet, his sex drive had weakened considerably. Deciding he didn't want to see this, he turned around and headed back down the vents to the exit.

 

* * *

 

Adam chose to get straight to filing his report about the London mission, eager to report on his suspicions about Tarvos. As he walked into the Counter Terrorism Unit's office, he glanced at MacReady's closed door, thinking again about what he knew his team leader was doing in there.

If he was right about his theory, Tarvos was connected to the Illuminati much like Belltower was, and given that the Illuminati seemed to have some sort of influence over TF29, it might be hard to get anywhere with this.. nonetheless, now that Adam knew Miller was definitely not part of the Illuminati, he decided to write up his suspicions anyway.

“ _Given an unusual string of recent incidents involving Tarvos Security Services as related to terrorist activity in Prague—notably, the apparent takeover of a Tarvos unit_ _by the enemy in London,_ _as well as the earlier incident of Chief Whittaker deliberately concealing evidence implicating_ _the suspect_ _in the Růžička station bombing—it is my opinion that there are questions that need answering regarding Tarvos. A closer investigation into the circumstances behind Marchenko's infilitration into Tarvos is, I believe, warranted._ ”

Adam carefully read over the paragraph he typed before submitting. It was innocent enough, simply stating his concerns without being overly accusatory. Miller should hopefully get on board. Especially if MacReady shared similar concerns, too.

Though, regardless, Adam knew that he would have to investigate Tarvos at least partially outside the scope of TF29. So on turned on his subvocal communicator and made a call via Infolink.

“ _Alex, you there_?”

It took a while before she responded. “ _Yeah, what's up, man?_ ”

“ _Just finished filing my after-action report from London. I put down that I'm suspicious of Tarvos.”_

“Y _ou mean you're going to use TF29 to investigate Tarvos' ties to the Illuminati?_ ”

“ _Yes and no. I'll get the ball rolling with TF29, hopefully, but I think we can get some better results poking around on our own._ ”

“ _You want to meet up and talk about it?_ ”

“ _Yeah, if you can.”_

“ _Sure, man, no problem. I can meet you in your apartment in_ _forty-five minutes.”_

“ _Sounds good._ ”

Forty-five minutes. Gave him some time to kill before he had to leave. Adam decided he would use it to address the other development in his life—MacReady's.. er.. _excitement_ about him. And he knew just who to talk to.

 

* * *

 

“Hey, Adam, did you get your after action report in?”

“Hey, Aria. Yep, just submitted it.”

“That's fast for you. Didn't you take forever to submit the one on Dubai?”

“I actually never did. MacReady had to do it for me. Too much going on, I guess.”

“Understandable. You've a lot happen in the past week and a half.”

Adam hesitated, thinking of the right to way go about the subject he wanted to bring up. He turned on his CASIE aug, knowing he would have to tread carefully.

“Can I ask you something? You've been hanging out with MacReady a lot lately, right?”

“Yeah.. why?”

“Just curious about something. Noticed he's stopped being an ass to me. Any idea why?”

Adam already half-knew the answer to this. After he got back from that disaster of a mission to Golem City, he goaded MacReady into admitting his anti-aug prejudice and then he apologized for it. Something about that exchange seemed to ease up a lot of the tension between the two. But knowing more would help.

“He's an ass on the outside but he lets his guard down once he decides he trust you. That's how it goes with him,” Aria responded.

“Huh. I can see that. Maybe that's what happens when you spend a decade chasing terrorists in the desert, and you split up with three wives.”

“Wives? Funny, I thought he was gay.”

Jackpot. Adam pressed the issue. “What makes you say that?”

“Just a feeling I get, I guess. I have pretty good gaydar.”

“Do you? Did you know I'm bi?”

“No, actually, I didn't. You don't exactly wear your heart on your sleeve, Adam.”

Adam chuckled. She was right, but there was more to it than that. But that was not something he wanted to talk about now.

“Fair point. Later, Aria.”

“Later.”

Adam headed into the elevator that would take him up to Praha Dovoz, and braced for the trip back to his apartment in Překážka. Martial law was still in effect and while there were two hours left until curfew started, the state police didn't make travel easy for the augmented.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one was on the short side but it's just really a continuation of the intro.


	3. Smells like a Conspiracy

_November 12 th, 2029 – Prague, Czech Republic_

Almost as soon as Adam walked out of Praha Dovoz, he was accosted by a grumpy state police officer in an exo suit.

“Oy, hanzer. Let me see the papers.”

Adam sighed. This was getting REALLY tiring. It took a lot of patience not to just punch those damn cops in the face.

“Here. I'm orange level.. Interpol agent. Can we hurry this up please?”

Usually cops got intimidated by Adam's Interpol ID. But since martial law that didn't seem to happen much anymore.

“What, you think that makes you some kind of special badass? You still need to go through the same checkpoints as anyone else,” snapped the cop as he scanned Adam's permit.

“Right. You know I'm the guy who ID'd the terrorists in the Růžička station bombing, don't you?”

“Hmph. Like there ever was a doubt it was ARC. Come on, time for a pat down.”

“I might as well just tell you that I'm armed. Tranquilizer rifle and FR-27 automatic. As a Task Force 29 operative I'm authorized to carry weapons, and I've got a Czech firearms license too, although as a TF29 agent I don't legally require it,” Adam said, handing over his gun license.

“Then why do you have it then?” he asked as he scanned the license.

“Mostly to get you guys to shut up.”

That was too much for the cop. “Watch the attitude, hanzer, unless you want to be thrown in the cage,” he snapped, his voice rising.

The noise drew over another officer.

“What's going on over here, Michálek? This aug giving you trouble? What's his status?”

“Orange level,” Michálek replied.

“Well, then, let him through, idiot! Last thing we need is to get in trouble...”

Adam let out a sigh of relief as he left the checkpoint. There were still a few officers who gave him some slack for being a TF29 agent, but not many. If martial law didn't end soon, he might find himself arrested. It would be easy enough to resist but Miller would probably give him shit for it... he'd insist on releasing Adam through the proper channels.

Not wanting to deal with another checkpoint, the aug ducked behind a tree, activated his cloak, and sprinted to Pilgrim station. Another checkpoint stood at the entrance to the station, a wall of barbed wire behind it. Still invisible, Adam activated his Icarus dash and vaulted directly over the checkpoint, slid down the stairs on the other side and ran straight into the doors of an open train.

While stupidly power intense—Adam had to use three biocells to make it—the trip was rather exhilarating and it was a relief to get onto the train so quickly and effortlessly.

The train was so crowded that no one really noticed that a man appeared out of thin air in the car. Damn martial law meant the number of trains was cut in half so they were always jammed. On top of that there was always a mad rush to get home before the curfew started.

Another checkpoint awaited Adam at the exit of Čapek Fountain station.. but he didn't feel the need to avoid it. On weekday evenings it was staffed by a female officer who was one of the good ones.. and an old ally. She helped Adam shut down a fake checkpoint set up by local scam artist Drahomír Koníčky.

“Ah, Mr. Interpol! Heading home now?”

“Yep. Don't want to get caught in the curfew.”

“Good idea. Go on through.”

“Thanks, officer.”

Her subordinates at the checkpoint glared at Adam as he passed. No doubt they hated her for being so chummy with an aug. Whenever she wasn't on shift, there was always extra crap to deal with from these guys.

There was yet another checkpoint just outside his apartment, but Adam knew how to get around it. He popped into Svobody Beer, where yet another connection, Teresa, worked as the bartender. Teresa, god bless her, gave out all kinds of essential goods to the city's neediest, bypassing both the mobsters and the corrupt police. A few days ago Adam supplied her “business” with an entire case of neuropozyne that he had “lifted” from the Versalife vault in the Palisade bank. It was enough to provide a month's worth of shots to two dozen people. In exchange, Teresa let Adam use a secret passageway that connected the basement of her store to the sewers.

Teresa gave Adam a smile and a nod—the bar was full of patrons and she clearly didn't want to say much—as Adam casually walked downstairs and into the storage room where the secret passageway started. From there, it was a quick trek through the sewers to a manhole that let out just outside his apartment building. This route was dirty, smelly, and required lots of jumping, but it let Adam get from his home to the metro station with only one checkpoint in the way.

The courtyard of Zeleň apartments was full of its typical crowd of homeless getting ready to hunker down for the night. The building manager was never around and the residents of the building often gave them blankets and food, so the place had become an unofficial homeless shelter under martial law.

 

* * *

 

When Adam got into his apartment, Alex was already there.

“Alex. You're early.”

“Getting around the checkpoints today turned out easier than I thought. First time that's true. How'd you hold up?”

“I've got my fair share of shortcuts around this city, and I'm on good terms with the cop who heads the checkpoint outside the metro station near here. Wasn't too bad.”

“Good terms with a cop? That's pretty lucky. Not too many cops in this town you CAN be on good terms with. Martial law is not very pretty.”

“No, it isn't. It's been a week now, you'd think they'd drop it already,” Adam mused.

“Fat chance. This is the chance they've been looking for since forever. The Human Restoration Act vote is next week. Janus is confident that you saving Brown's delegates means it will fail. That goes against everything the Czech government is hoping for. If anything, they'll make martial law even worse.”

Adam nodded grimly. Stopping the Act was one thing, but mankind was far from getting over its divide.

“So.. Tarvos. What exactly did you write in your report?” Alex asked.

“Just that we've seen Tarvos-related problems come up too many times for me to ignore them. Didn't really make any accusations, at all.”

“You really think Miller will listen?” asked Alex.

“When I saved him from the Orchid, he got all emotional on me. Said he knew in his gut that I was right all along and that he should have listened to me. I don't know what Miller will try to get the task force to do, but after that speech he gave me when he almost died, he should be willing to do _something_.”

“Huh. And to think I was convinced he was in on all of this. Regardless of how much he trusts you though, if Tarvos really is an Illuminati front, he's not going to get very far if he wants to investigate. We're going to have to do things our way.”

“Do you have anything in mind?” Adam asked.

“Well, the main thing to find out is more information about how exactly Tarvos is connected to Belltower. Thanks to your trip to London, we've got a bit of a pointer on where to look. Janus should be able to get some info for us.”

“Janus. Sure, sounds like he's got this. By chance, did you...”

“Talk to him about you wanting a meeting? Yeah, I did. And he was actually receptive. He says he's willing to do it. But he wants to set up lots of precautions, make sure there's no way either of you can be followed, no way for it to be traced.”

Adam sighed. He really wanted to meet Janus sooner rather than later, but Janus' concerns were valid. “All right. I'll wait for him to figure it out.”

“Glad to hear it, Adam. It's good to know you trust us, man. You're doing really good work. Being a mole inside TF29 can't always be easy.”

“It can get dicey, sure, but overall, I think TF29 does good work. We've actually saved a lot of lives. Sure, the Illuminati will do everything they can to use it as a tool, but, for now at least, TF29 are the good guys.”

“True, but still, be careful. The Illuminati are almost certainly influencing it in ways neither of us are thinking of. You've been there for a while... any suspicious characters over there?” Alex asked.

“Yeah, a few. Our psychiatrist, Delara Auzenne, for one. Something about her just doesn't seem right. She showed up pretty suddenly and she reports directly to TF29 HQ in Lyon, rather than to Miller.”

“Bypassing Miller is suspicious... but that might be part of her job. Not being part of the team directly lets her observe from the outside looking in.”

“Hmm. You might be right.”

“What about the rest of your team?”

“I don't have suspicions about any of them, honestly. Though there is something interesting going on with my team leader, Duncan MacReady,” Adam chuckled.

Alex seemed taken aback by Adam's change of tone.

“What do you mean?”

“It seems he has a crush on me. Or something like that. Let's just say when I was spying on him in his office, I ended up seeing him get.. err.. _rather excited_ about a picture of me.”

The expression on Alex's face was neutral. “Hmm... doesn't necessarily mean he couldn't be an Illuminati plant.”

_Wow_ , Adam thought. Was Alex ever _not_ serious?

“I suppose that's true.”

“Anyway.. I best get going, Adam. Wanna make it back before curfew is lifted.”

“Alright. Bye, Alex.”

As Alex left, Adam looked at the clock. 8:43PM. An hour and seventeen minutes to go until curfew.. but best to get ready now. He locked the door, closed the blinds, and plunked himself down on the couch, prepared to wait out the night with some old movies. It was at that exact moment his TV announced an incoming call.

“Incoming call from Duncan MacReady,” the television announced.

Adam was taken aback. Why was MacReady calling... and why was he calling by vidcall instead of infolink?

“Accept call,” Adam instructed.

MacReady's face showed up. He was still in the office... and judging by his facial expression, something was wrong.

“MacReady... is everything okay?”

“Do you think I'd be calling your apartment directly if everything was okay? No, everything is not okay. I just stumbled on something very concerning.. and I don't want Miller to know. That's why I'm not using the Infolink.”

“Miller doesn't have read-access to my Infolink, MacReady. Nobody does.”

“Right, well... how was I to know that? Listen, I've been digging around on Tarvos and I just stumbled on something big.”

“What's this something big?” Adam asked, curious as to what would get MacReady this riled up.

“A person. Or rather, an investigation about a person. One Andrew Tran. Formerly a high ranking operative in Belltower... second or third in command for the entire Australian operation, from what I can tell. Found guilty of war crimes numerous times but kept getting away with it.. until the Incident, when he was finally discharged, but just a few months ago, he was hired by Tarvos to run their East Asian Division.”

“Great.. an ugly and high level link between Tarvos and Belltower. Isn't this what we both suspected? Why all the dramatics, MacReady?”

“Because.. only five days after he was hired, he vanished. Didn't show up to work or anything. It was suspected to be the work of terrorists. But when TF29's Shanghai team started investigating, they got an order to _cease all investigation_. Straight from Lyon.. top-secret papers. I stumbled on them by accident.. some tech forget to delete them.”

Adam perked up, startled. The ex-cop had good gut instincts when it came to smelling out conspiracies, and they were telling him that the Illuminati's fingerprint was all over this one.

“Shit.. I don't like that one bit.”

“Neither do I, Jensen. It's either a nasty case of official corruption, or outside infiltration by malicious groups, at the highest levels of Interpol. I don't want to tell Miller, last thing I want to do is end up being the whistleblower on something I'm not supposed to get my nose in. TF29's special powers let us cut through a lot of bullshit but it would make it terrifying easy to get rid of an... _unwanted_ agent.”

Adam nodded. “One thing though, MacReady... why are you telling me this?”

“You're the one who flat out rejected Miller's direction.. what with going in GARM and all, insisting that Marchenko was the guilty one, not Rucker. And it paid off for you, didn't it? You clearly know how to handle these situations, where the bosses can't necessarily be listened to.”

“Yeah, well.... I got away with that one by proving that I knew what I was talking about. I found evidence, outside of the scope of TF29. Used old contacts and such. That's what we need to do here, MacReady.”

“Old contacts? For Christ's sake, Jensen, _who are_ these old contacts!!! It's these moments that make me not want to trust you... exactly _what_ have you been up to in the past!?”

Adam spoke quickly. Even the slightest hesitation would destroy MacReady's trust of him. “Calm down, MacReady. My life story is a lot more complicated than yours. I worked corporate security for years, for Sarif Industries of all places. That involved protecting the company from more than just terrorists... cybercriminals, the gangs, corporate rivals.. you end up working with a lot of interesting folks in that line of work. I got things done by building up favour debts. And I've still got a lot left to call in. Trust me, I can get what I want from these people without compromising why I'm asking.”

This wasn't really a truthful answer. But it sounded good, and he couldn't afford even the suspicion of being connected with the Collective.

“I can get that.. sorry, mate, just got a little worked up. This whole thing is such a god damn mess.”

“Look, MacReady. Everything is going to be okay. Get out of the office quick, make it back to your place before curfew. I'll get the gears moving on this, get some info on this Andrew Tran guy for you as soon as possible.”

“Alright.. thanks, mate.”

“Don't mention it. We're in on this together, after all. Jensen out.”

Adam walked over to the kitchen, got on his computer, and sent an encrypted message to Alex telling her about Andrew Tran. With the Collective on the task, information should pour in quickly.

 


	4. Hatching a Plan

_November 13 th, 2029 – Prague, Czech Republic_

It was dark, dirty, and grimy, and water leaked from the circular roof. Judging by this, Adam was in an underground tunnel, probably a sewer.

It was then that Adam heard a cry. “Jensen!”

“MacReady? What are you doing....”

His team leader was sprawled out on the floor, a bloody mess with his limbs missing and violently red strangle marks on his neck.

Adam leaned down next to his dismembered team leader.

“MacReady! What happened...”

“Shhh. It's too late. But before I go...”

He turned to face him, and before Adam knew what was going on, MacReady leaned in on him, puckering his lips... closer, and closer...

 

* * *

 

“Wait, wha.....”

Adam awoke with a start. He darted his eyes around the bedroom of his apartment for some time before realizing it was a dream.

_That was strange_ , Adam thought to himself.

Clearly, the theatre of Adam's brain decided to combine the shock of finding MacReady getting busy to Adam's picture with the bloody, dismembered body of Angela Gunn.

Cursing his brain and its weird ways, Adam climbed out of bed and headed over to the kitchen for a glass of water.

After his conversation with Aria, Adam had let the topic of MacReady's crush fall out of his mind. But now it was back.

“But is it really a crush?” Adam pondered aloud. “Jacking off to something is not really the same thing as a crush...”

Adam couldn't lie to himself, intimacy scared him. The ghost of Megan wasn't gone from his mind yet, and the idea of someone else coming this close made him uncomfortable.

_Well.. hopefully this was just a one time thing. It probably was_ , the aug concluded.

Adam checked the time. 5:28am. Still dark, and a little over half an hour until curfew was over. He walked over to his computer and checked if Alex had gotten back to him. Alex didn't sleep much so this was quite likely. Sure enough, an email was waiting.

 

“ _FROM:_ _< <<SENDER UNIDENTIFIED>>>_

_TO: A_ _dam Jensen_

_SUBJECT:_ _< <<NO SUBJECT>>>_

_I think we struck gold with this one, Adam! There's definitely something interesting about this Andrew Tran guy. Talked with Janus about him... apparently missing since July, no mention of him anywhere. We've got half the hackers on our mailing list on it, though.. we'll see if can find something.”_

 

“Half the hackers” in the Collective... well, that meant Adam wouldn't be waiting long for an answer.

A bowl of his beloved breakfast cereal and a shower took up the rest of the half hour and just after six, Adam pulled on the Acronym coat and headed out. It was early to head into the office, but there wasn't much else going on. Besides, with train service limited, he wanted to make it in before rush hour started.

Downstairs in the courtyard, the homeless were stirring, ready to leave after crashing the night. Apart from them, no one else was up yet. Adam headed out the side door for his usual route through the sewers to Svobody Beer, which was empty at this hour. At this time of day, the friendly cop at Capek Fountain station wasn't around, so the checkpoint would be brutal. Adam sighed as he prepared to begin the annoying trek through Prague to get to work.

 

* * *

 

40 minutes and four checkpoints later Adam made it to into work. Cops were grumpy, but not many people were out this early so at least the lines were short. The shipping company was completely deserted, and when he made it downstairs, the office was mostly deserted too, other than the usual noctural IT crowd. In the counter-terrorism office.. nobody.

Just as Adam sat down at his desk, in chimed the Infolink.

“ _Adam_. _. We've got something on Tran._ ”

“ _Already?_ ”

“ _Our hackers are good, Adam. We found him.._ _his disappearance must be an elaborate ruse, because_ _there's a Tarvos document,_ _from two weeks ago, that_ _says he's currently in_ _Czersk_ _, a_ _small_ _town_ _in_ _northern_ _Poland._ ”

“ _Poland? Wasn't he in East Asia before? How he'd get all the way over there?_ ”

“ _No idea. Janus also found_ _a police report_ _that suggests he's involved with smuggling operations of sorts._ _Last month a_ _guy_ _in_ _Czersk_ _named_ _'Janusz Bačinský' was arrested for smuggling neuropozyne,_ _then let go_ _._ _Bribed his way out, it looks like._ _Report notes_ _that the name is_ _suspected to be_ _fake_ _, because despite having a Polish name, 'Janusz Bačinský' couldn't speak a word of Polish and spoke to police in English with a Chinese accent._ _And_ _his described age_ _and_ _physical_ _appearance match up_ _with Andrew Tran_. _There's only_ _a few thousand_ _people_ _living_ _in_ _Czersk_ _, Adam. That has to be him._ ”

“ _Solid stuff... did you guys get any_ _more_ _info by searching_ _the name_ _J_ _anusz Bačinský?_ ” Adam asked.

“ _Not yet. But we're looking._ ”

“ _Let me know as soon as you get anything. Jensen, out._ ”

Adam decided he'd take matters into his own hands. He started up the I-Link program on his computer and ran the name Janusz Bačinský through it. Multiple people with that name... he entered the town name, Czersk, to narrow it down.

One guy was identified, and there wasn't much to go on. The police report Alex mentioned showed up, but nothing else.

Deciding on a different tack, Adam decided to look more into Czersk to see if anything came up.

Czersk was a small town... but apparently a hotbed of smuggling.. and of ARC. It was a major crossroads for ARC's illicit neuropozyne shipments.

Adam scratched his head. This connection was getting more and more intriguing. Something tying together Belltower, Tarvos...and ARC? He had to get to Czersk to find this guy.. and with the right strategy, he could get him using TF29.

The aug headed downstairs to the IT crowd, looking for someone on the smuggling team. Poland was in Interpol's Central European region, under Miller's authority, so there should be people in the office familiar with the situation there.

 

* * *

 

“Travek.. how's it going?”

“Oh.. hey, Agent Jensen. Early for you isn't it?”

“Wanted to beat rush hour. Listen, do you have a minute?”

“Sure, what's up?”

“How much is your team involved with monitoring smuggling in Poland?”

“Oh jeez... very! Almost all the neuropozyne smuggling in Europe goes through Poland. Mostly coming from Versalife's warehouses in Lithuania, en route to Germany, Slovakia through to the Balkans, and also to right here in the Czech Republic. Why? Did you find something in the field?”

“Sort of.” Adam paused, thinking of how to word his upcoming lie. “There's a shady character whose named popped up a few times. Name is Janusz Bačinský.. pretty sure he was supplying neuropozyne to Marchenko's group. And I tracked him down in I-Link, looks like he operates out of a small town in Poland, called Czersk.”

“Czersk? He's not the only one operating up there. For a small town that place is crazy... and the local police aren't being much help. Probably paid off.”

“So... would you support sending a team up there to fetch Bačinský?”

“What? Seems a little drastic, don't you think?”

Adam shook his head. “We're in the business of catching these guys, Travek. And if the Polish police 'aren't being much help', it's our job to get this done. I don't have anything firm to prove it but Bačinský is bad news and we need to interrogate him.”

“Well.. I mean... it's not really my call, but if you can get something a little more concrete, I'm sure Miller will send you guys out. He doesn't want to leave any stone unturned, as far as I can tell.”

Adam sighed. He knew it wouldn't be that easy, but at least he planted the seed. The aug headed back to his desk and activated his sub-vocal communicator as he headed upstairs.

“ _Alex..._ _I might have a shot at getting TF29 dispatched to Czer_ _s_ _k to capture Tran._ ”

“ _What? Actually?_ ”

“ _Yeah. That town is a major smuggling hotbed and there's lots of ARC activity._ _Quite likely Tran is involved with ARC smuggling, I think. Should_ _be easy enough to get Miller on board if I can get something_ _firm_ _to connect Tran to ARC._ ”

“ _We haven't dug up anything beyond that police report._ _And even if we did.. how are you going to present that to Miller, exactly? You can't exactly tell him where you got the information about Tran being in Poland from._ ”

“ _And MacReady can't really tell Miller that we got a connection to Tran in the first place. I'll talk to_ _MacReady_ _when he gets in, see what he thinks._ ”

“ _Okay, you do that. Be careful._ ”

“ _Always. Jensen, out._ ”

As soon as he was done with Alex he made an infolink call to MacReady.

“ _MacReady.. you there?_ ”

“ _Jensen?? On my way in to work now.. what's going on?_ ”

“ _How close are you? Can you meet me up in the courtyard on the east side of the building? It's about.. well, what you called me about last night._ ”

“ _Yeah, sure. Give me ten minutes. Or fifteen. Damn cops..._ ”

 

* * *

 

Adam waited outside, the chilly November air blowing through the empty courtyard, until MacReady showed up. He motioned for MacReady to come closer, lean in, so they could talk without being overheard.. as he leaned in, Adam had a vivid flashback to his dream. Shaking his head slightly to remove it, he got right to the point.

“So.. got results already. Andrew Tran.. he's in Poland right now, using the alias Janusz Bačinský. Holed up in a small town named Czersk and involved in neuropozyne smuggling, possibly tied up with ARC.”

“Holy shit, Jensen, that's some quick work. Whatever those sources of yours are, they're incredible... only...what do we do now? How exactly do we get Miller on board with sending us up to Poland to get this guy?”

“He's using that Polish alias.. so all we have to do is find an excuse to fetch Janusz Bačinský. Leave out the fact that he's Andrew Tran... should make it harder for the higher-ups to stop us.”

“Great.. but what's our reason for bringing in 'Janusz Bačinský'? Neither of us have sources we're willing to share with Miller.” MacReady pointed out.

“We tie it in with the London attack. Say he's an ARC smuggler who was involved with Marchenko. We just need to find someway of making it believable that we'd know that. And once we get him, we can interrogate him, and ' _find out_ ' about him being Andrew Tran, and his role in the whole Tarvos-Belltower connection. Serendipity.”

“Shit, Jensen.. that's risky. Playing fast and loose with the rules, big time. But... we've got no choice. Tell you what... I've got lots of papers and pocket secretaries taken from Marchenko's goons. Give me an hour, and I can... _create_ the Bačinský connection.”

Adam was taken aback. It didn't seem very MacReady-esque to falsify evidence. “You'll do that?”

“I said I will, Jensen. I don't like it, but I don't see another choice.”

“Thanks, MacReady.”

He smiled. “Don't mention it.. you know, we make a good team, you and I.”

 

* * *

 

It didn't even take an hour. Twenty-five minutes after their little scheme was hatched in the courtyard, MacReady showed up at Adam's desk. By now, most of the counter-terrorism unit was in, so some acting was necessary.

“Agent Jensen... that tip you got about that Polish smuggler? Looks like it checks out, mate. Quite clear from all the evidence I have here that Janusz Bačinský was the main supplier of Nu-poz to Marchenko's entire unit... appears to have been working with him for a very long time, judging by the dates on some of these messages.”

Adam smiled. MacReady was good at this.

“Anything else of note about Bačinský?”

“You're right about him being in Czersk.. and, he looks to have one hell of a network of contacts. We might have to bring him in.”

“Well then,” Adam said. “My gut was right again. Need help drafting a mobilization plan?”

“First we need Miller to sign off, obviously. But I think it's safe to say that someone here is going to be going off to Poland soon.”

 

* * *

 

“Poland?” Miller asked.

“Yes, Poland. Czersk, specifically. Small town in the Pomerania region.”

Adam & MacReady were presenting their “findings” to Miller, trying to get him to send them up to Czersk to fetch Tran.

“Seems rather sudden... you guys didn't mention this in your after-action reports yesterday. All you two really talked about was being suspicious of the Tarvos infilitration.”

Adam started first. “Well, I heard Bačinský's name mentioned by a few of Marchenko's men in London. Didn't think much of it at the time. Got bored and played around with I-Link, found the mention of neuropozyne smuggling, and the ARC ring in Czersk... this is gold.”

“Well, MacReady's evidence isn't particularly thorough but when combined with that Polish police report it's enough to call him a suspect. As for getting him... normally we'd get the Polish authorities to handle the arrest but they're even less co-operative with us than the Czech State Police, especially on smuggling.

I'm sending you up to Czersk. No need for a full team deploy, this is just a simple grab-and-go. Then again, being that far away from Prague, I'm not sending anyone in alone... so here's the plan: we'll get a temporary base of operations set up in Czersk.. abandoned storefront, hotel room, unoccupied apartment, wherever. Support team will find a place. Jensen, MacReady, you'll both go up there.

Meanwhile, I'll get our research crew on the task of pinpointing Bačinský's location within Czersk. If that doesn't get us anywhere, you'll have to do some good old fashioned ground research once you get there.”

“Yes, sir. MacReady & I will make sure to bring him in.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For anyone wondering, yes, Czersk is a real place in Poland. Why did I pick it? Based on everything I had in mind for this story it had to be in a specific area of Poland, so I did some Google Street view tours of various towns in that area to see which one had the right 'atmosphere' for what I had in mind, and settled on Czersk. Wouldn't it be something if anyone reading this actually lives in Czersk... (with a population of only 10,008 that would be quite a coincidence!)


	5. Under the Surface

_November 14 th, 2029 – Czersk, Pomerania, Poland_

Adam looked around the damp, musty, one-room apartment. No furniture, other than an old mattress on the floor, and some badly moth-eaten blankets scattered around. The kitchen had an oven and a fridge, both shut with red duct tape. Cobwebs grew all along the ceiling.

It must have been nice back in the day... Adam could make out the remains of what was clearly an expensive carpet, and admired the beautiful view of Czersk's main street out of the large window. But this three-story apartment block had been abandoned after the Incident. Adam & MacReady were probably the first humans to set foot in the building in quite some time.

And it was for this reason that TF29 had identified this apartment as the perfect forward operating base for their mission to arrest Bačinský.. or as he was truly known as, Andrew Tran.

Chikane had flown them in with a whole assortment of equipment. TF29 had all kinds of state of the art portable devices that made it possible to set up an effective base quickly and cheaply. In no time at all, Adam & MacReady had set up some basic security—cameras and a laser grid—in the old apartment, along with a crude, but practical, holding cell. Thrown together with pre-fab parts, their “prison” was a cage complete with a portable toilet and an EMP field. Enough to safely and humanely hold Bačinský for a while if their extraction was delayed.

TF29 had also arranged a car rental for them in Czersk. It was an old clunky thing, complete with a gasoline engine, a relative rarity in 2029, but it could get them from point A to point B and that's what mattered. For field equipment, aside from weapons and ammunition, they had state of the art EMP handcuffs and a whole pack of smoke grenades. Adam marvelled at how well equipped TF29 was... neither Sarif Industries nor the Detroit Police Department ever had this many supplies available.

Having taken care of the setup, the two agents called in to HQ for an update.

“Miller, we've arrived at the forward operating base in Czersk and have completed setup. Any update on Bačinský's whereabouts?”

“No. We haven't been able to find anything. We don't trust local police enough to request a warrant and Polish authorities keep most records on local networks.”

“Well then, maybe we need to _acquire_ police information anyway,” Adam suggested.

“I'm not a fan of that approach but that would work, as long as you weren't caught. The political shitstorm that would result...” Miller warned.

“Agent Jensen & I can manage that, sir. Where is the local police station?” MacReady asked.

“Right down the street from where you are. I'll upload co-ordinates into Agent Jensen's system.”

A few seconds later, Adam saw the location pipe up in his HUD. The target was to the west, a few minutes walk. With finding parking, it would take longer to drive than to walk.

“On our way now, heading out on foot. Czersk, out.”

The two agents put their coats on over their body armor, headed down the stairs, and out the side door.

It was a brilliantly sunny morning with little wind, and a lot warmer than it should be for this time of year. Czersk's main boulevard was wide, with a brick and stone sidewalk separated from the road by a row of trees and shrubs, and lined by buildings in a variety of styles, ranging from the grey and white boxes of the communist era to more colourful bricks and stones of centuries past.

The town seemed so peaceful and cozy... it did not _look_ like a hotbed of smuggling and organized crime. But Adam was sure all the nasty elements were right there under the surface of this pretty town.. just like how the Dvali lurked underneath the polished streets of Čistá Čtvrť in Prague.

As they walked westward, the high street tapered off into a cobblestoned residential street for a few blocks, before the police station came into view. A large, imposing glass and steel building.. surrounded by tiny houses. It looked painfully out of place.. but Adam didn't pay much attention to that.. he was too busy viewing the building with his smart vision aug, looking for a clandestine entry route.

“MacReady,” Adam nudged, “Got a possible entry. Open window in the back.”

“Jesus.. those augmented eyes really come in handy... I don't suppose you can say if there's anyone near it?”

“An old lady pushing a walker down the street on the outside, should be gone by the time we get there. On the inside, no one is in that room. But there is a camera.. I can take of that though.”

“What do you mean, exactly?”

“I have an advanced hacking aug in my arm, lets me hack into embedded devices from a short distance. It's experimental and clunky to use, but I've figured out how to use it to shut off cameras for a short time.”

“Now _that's_ handy.”

Adam nodded as they approached the window. The old lady passed them by and now there was no one. The aug raised his hand towards the window, and a glowing blue circle appeared near his augmented right hand. It looked like his hand was having a seizure as his fingers moved erratically.

“That looks very weird, Jensen.”

“Shh.. trying to concent... damn it.”

“What's wrong?”

“Screwed it up. No big deal, just have to wait a few seconds... trying it again... BOOM! there we go. Quick, let's climb in.”

The two agents scampered through the window. The camera was pointed straight up, its lenses moving erratically as it failed to record any data. Adam & MacReady quickly moved across the room to the other side, getting behind the camera as it reactivated.

They were in a small supply closet. Opposite the window stood a door into a long, narrow hallway.

Using his smart vision again, Adam scanned the hallway and found it was also clear.. of both guards and cameras. At the end of the hall was a room with computers and filing cabinets.. bingo.

Gesturing to MacReady to follow, Adam opened the door and moved slowly and quietly down the hallway, his fellow agent right behind him.

After they made their way into the information room, MacReady piped up. “Alright. I'll start hacking these machines, you keep an eye out for any visitors with those fancy gadget eyes or whatever they are.”

Adam nodded and leaned against the door. He didn't need his smart vision for this.. the radar was good enough.

 

* * *

 

It was nearly half an hour before MacReady finally found something.

“Jensen, got something. Unpaid utility bill owed to the town council by none other than Janusz Bačinský. It's for water service to a house... 22 Doktora Matejki.”

“Great.. how far is that?”

“GPS says that by car, it's about--”

“Shit.. MacReady, we're about to get company.”

“Quick.. Jensen, get under this desk with me.”

Adam didn't need telling twice.. he bolted across the room, climbed over a row of desks, and quickly darted under the desk with MacReady. Seconds later, two men and one woman barged into the room.

The three chattered in Polish for some time before spreading around the room, opening cabinets and trashing through papers while Adam & MacReady stayed hidden.

It was a tight fit under the desk and the two men were brushed up against each other.. mildly awkward, Adam thought, but put it out of his mind as he intently listened and watched (via smart vision & radar) the activity of the three cops... or rather...

“MacReady,” Adam whisphered, “I don't think they're cops! They're in police uniforms but they're not exactly being cautious with their searching.. their ripping up papers.. they're whispering instead of talking...”

“So.. criminals destroying records. Or maybe corrupt cops destroying records. What else is new.”

“True.. we have to get out of here though...”

“Let's just wait it out, mate. They're not interested in the computers, apparently. Only the filing cabinets.”

Adam nodded, and the two men remained huddled under the desk waiting for the intruders to leave.

As the minutes went on, Adam couldn't help but notice MacReady breathing rather heavily and pushing up against him a little more than he had to.

And then... one of them slammed a binder against the top of the desk they were hiding under. In shock, MacReady jolted forwards, which had the unfortunate effect of grinding his raging erection into Adam's stomach.

Shock waves were sent down Adam's spine... much to his surprise, he rather enjoyed that and let out a soft moan.. which much to his relief, was inaudible over the noise, as in that exact moment the three started shouting. What they were saying, Adam had no idea—he didn't know a word of Polish—but after a few moments, the three headed out the door.

Adam quickly bolted out from under the desk and MacReady followed. Using his smart vision and remote hacking aug, he quickly disabled the supply closet camera, giving the two agents enough time to sneak back out the window and out onto the street.

 

* * *

 

As they drove over to Doktora Matejki street, MacReady driving and Adam in the front seat, they remained silent. Neither wanted to talk about their awkward encounter... at least, not for a while, and then MacReady piped up.

“So.. mate.. about.. well, you know...”

“Don't worry about it, MacReady. Things happen when people are full of adrenaline,” Adam said firmly. He hoped he made it clear that he didn't want to talk about it any further.

MacReady seemed to get the memo and they finished their drive over to the target destination in silence.

Czersk wasn't very big, so it didn't take them long to get to Doktora Matejki street. It was a very quiet residential street, lined with trees and gardens.

That is.... until they rounded a corner and #22, their target location, came into view... and things changed pretty suddenly.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> MacReady is getting hot and bothered ;)
> 
> side note: Doktora Matejki isn't a real street in Czersk.


	6. The Swamp

_November 14 th, 2029 – Czersk, Pomerania, Poland_

There they were.. in their car, outside Doktora Matejki street, across from #22. Quaint looking two story house. Possible home of their target, Andrew Tran, living under the assumed name of Janusz Bačinský.

Only... Adam & MacReady were not alone.

Three burly men stood on the sidewalk outside the house's gate.. all of them armed with combat rifles, aimed straight inside the door.

“ _Shit_..”

“Don't worry Jensen... I'm on it.”

“Wait, MacReady, what are you...”

MacReady rolled down the window, pulled out the tranquilizer rifle, and within seconds, shot two of them in the face, instantly putting them to sleep... and then he missed the third.

Yelling loudly in Polish, the still-standing man turned wildly to see where the shots came from.. and just as he caught glimpse of the Interpol agents, Adam fired an electric Tesla round straight at him. He yelled in shock, then crumbled on the floor next to the other two goons.

“Shit MacReady, you're not a god-level shooter like Aria! You can't expect to hit all three of them perfectly! What if I hadn't been ready to fire my Tesla aug!?”

“Look, mate, in the field you gotta act quick. And I acted quick. And it worked out.”

Adam shook his head, but decided not to argue further. “I guess it did work out. I'll check if there's any more of them around.”

The aug consulted his radar and swept the house with his smart vision.

“Nope, no other goons. One person is inside the house. He's unarmed, but augmented, it looks like. Hopefully it's our man, and hopefully we can get him easily.”

“Don't know about that... who knows what kind of crazy augs an ex-Belltower general could have... we need to play this carefully. Let's not go up, knock on his door, and say he's under arrest."

Adam chuckled. “Not my style anyway, MacReady.”

The two agents climbed over the fence and snaked their way around the edge of the house, looking for a better entry than the front door. A bathroom window did the trick, although it was a tight fit for grown men.

According to Adam's smart vision, the one person in the house was sitting down in a large living room just outside the bathroom, and he was facing away from the door. If they could open the door quietly, they could sneak up on him effectively.

They opened the door, and tiptoed to within a few feet of the sitting man. Adam looked over at MacReady, who nodded. The two then got out their guns, pointed them to the man, while MacReady spoke.

“Janusz Bačinský. Is that you?”

The man jumped, and turned around... and it became instantly clear that the agents had gotten it wrong... this man was clearly not Tran. Rather, the man before them was a frail looking senior.

Adam regained composure first and quickly raised his hands. "We're very sorry sir.. do you speak English? We're police and this is a mistake. We'll be leaving now."

The man started laughing. “Police? What, some elite unit? Ha, _right_.”

A long nanoblade attachment shot out of the man and hit Adam's left arm. If Adam's arm was natural it would have been devastating, but Adam's kevlar-plated augmented arm meant he was fine.

The man swore as he realized Adam was augmented and in that split second MacReady got him with his stun gun. A flash of electricity, a yelp, and the man was on the ground.

“Good one, MacReady.”

“You alright? That nanoblade looked sharp.”

“Probably just a scratch. I'll get my mechanic to check up on it when we're back in Prague. Let's focus on what just happened.”

“Right... that this old man actually packed quite a punch. He's not Tran but he's definitely connected with him. Think we should search this place?” MacReady asked.

“Definitely. And we should probably interrogate this guy. Throw the EMP handcuffs on him. Once we're done poking around the house we can revive him.”

“Sure. I'll get the handcuffs, you start searching. You do the upstairs. I'll search down here once I've got this man secured.”

 

* * *

 

The upstairs had two bedrooms and a small half bath. From Adam's experience people tended to hide important things in their bedrooms, but there was nothing up there. Not even a secret closet like the ones he'd found numerous times in Prague. Shaking his head, he went downstairs to join MacReady. Hopefully he was having better luck.

MacReady was rifling through kitchen cabinets when Adam found him.

“Upstairs was a dud. You find anything yet?”

“Just one thing. Check this out.” MacReady said as he threw a pocket secretary over to Adam.

 

_Tran,_

_ARC is on to you.. you'll have to hide at the Swamp for now. I'll stay at the house. Don't worry, I'll be fine._

 

“Huh.. Tran made enemies with ARC somehow. Those guys outside that we took down.. ARC guys?”

“They probably were,” MacReady agreed. “And now we need to figure out where the hell 'the Swamp' is. Problem is these drawers are the last thing in the whole bloody house that we haven't searched... and, fuck. Nothing.”

“Well, we've still got our guy. Guess we'll have to wake him up now.”

The agents walked over to the living room and CPR'ed the old man awake.

“Whaa... where.. oy! What did you do to me?”

“EMP handcuffs,” MacReady told him. “Can't risk you using that fancy arm of yours, can we?”

“What do you want?” the man asked angrily.

“Janusz Bačinský. He's at 'the Swamp', right? Where is 'the Swamp'?” MacReady demanded.

“Heh. And what will you do if I don't tell you?”

Adam chimed in, turning on his CASIE. “We're Interpol. We could throw you in a black site prison for a while. I'm sure it would be fun to be an aug in there.”

“Interpol? What the hell are doing here? Look, I'll tell you where the Swamp is, just don't arrest me.”

_Wow_ , Adam thought. _That was easy_.

“Deal. Now spill it,” MacReady said.

“It's a small cottage in the country.. drive to the north end of this street and take a left. It will take you out past the town limits and into the country... cottage is maybe 15 minutes down that road, driveway is marked by a statue of a wolf.”

“Thanks. Now I hope you'll understand that we can't let you go right now.. we have no way of knowing if you'll alert Bačinský or not, plus we need to keep our operation here quiet. We'll take you with us to our forward operating base and once our operation here is concluded we will release you,” MacReady explained. “Got it?"

The man sighed. “Alright. But you better release me at the end of all this.”

“Please. We're not criminals. You can trust us.”

 

* * *

 

The two agents, with their informant in tow, drove back to the home base, quickly moved him inside the apartment (walking on either side of him to prevent passerby from seeing his handcuffs). Considering how aggressively he attacked them at first, the old man was very docile now that he was EMP cuffed. Probably didn't have any real combat skills beyond his augs, Adam thought.

After securing him inside their makeshift jail, the two agents set off for 'the Swamp'.

 

* * *

 

Having been caught off guard multiple times so far in Czersk, the two agents were fairly alert as MacReady drove into the country and towards Tran's hideout. Yet, the ride there was quiet.

“Anything on your radar, at all, Jensen?”

“Nope. Nobody else is around at all. Just us, driving along this country road.”'

“Funny.. you'd think we were on a Sunday drive,” MacReady remarked.

“Well, if it's like anything else in this town, it won't stay that way.”

But it did. They made it all the way to the statue of the wolf without anything happening. Parking the car on the side of the road, the agents hopped out and peeked down the long driveway.

A small, very run down cabin lay in the distance. And in between them and the front door were a whole series of laser grids, plus two turrets. This guy wasn't joking around.

“Shit.. I don't suppose your fancy remote hacking thing can get past all that?”

“As a matter of fact, MacReady, it can.. but I can only shut down the turrets for thirty seconds at a time. We'll have to time this well.”

The turrets followed an erratic pattern.. or rather, they didn't seem to have a pattern all. Adam watched them for a while... moving slowly to the left, jerking all the way over to the right, staying there, starting to move left then abruptly moving right again... staying out of their way was going to be nearly impossible. And there wasn't much cover to hide behind on the driveway... they would have to be very fast.

“MacReady.. see the wheelbarrow to the left of the front door?”

“Yeah, what about it?”

“Well, we have a bit of an issue.. when I say _go_ , we'll have about twenty seconds to run up to it and use it as a cover.”

“Fuck... that's a long way... we're really risking it.”

“Don't have much of a choice... I'm working on the grids now... start getting ready.”

MacReady took some deep breaths and started stretching, getting ready for a quick sprint as the ex-cop continued his remote hacking.

“Alright... just have to shut down this node, and... GO!”

The two agents bolted down the driveway as fast as they could. Adam made it there in fourteen seconds with his augmented legs, but MacReady was taking a little longer.

_Shit_... Adam thought. Five seconds until the first turret came back online... three... two.. MacReady wasn't going to make it...

And he didn't. Just before MacReady could take cover with Adam behind the wheelbarrow, turret #1 came back online, and spotted him.

Just as the turret started to open fire, MacReady settled in behind the wheelbarrow.. and a few seconds later, alarms went blaring.

“Fucking hell!”

“ _Shhh_ ,” Adam hissed. “He's about to come out of the cabin. Radar tells me he's running.”

Sure enough, an East Asian man came running out the front door. He was wearing heavy duty body armor, and wildly waved a machine pistol in the air, scanning the area. Adam saw with great relief that only his arms were augmented. He didn't have smart vision, and that meant they were safe behind their cover. At least for now.

“Hey, hey.. ARCy, ARCy... come on out now...” Tran shouted out.

Tran moved quickly and without much hesitation as he searched the area. This guy wasn't scared at all... either he was an idiot, or confident he could hold his own in combat. Given his history, it was almost certainly the latter.

“Oy.. Jensen... if I can get him with the tranquilizer rifle, will that work? He got any special augs that you can see?” MacReady whispered.

“No. No cranial plating.”

With Tran constantly swivelling around to check his six, getting a shot in wouldn't be easy. It was time for some more cover.

“MacReady.. pass me the rifle, you throw out a smoke grenade. I'll use my smart vision to take the shot.”

“10-4.”

Moments later, the tranquilizer rifle was in Adam's hands, and MacReady readied the grenade. Unfortunately, Tran heard the grenade being thrown.. but by the time he had turned around to face the Interpol agents, smoke filled the air all around him.

“Fuck.. you're not going to get me so easy, ARC! _Take that_!”

Tran unloaded his machine pistol in their direction, filling the air will bullets and making it difficult for Adam to break cover to make the shot. Pulling his shades up to protect his eyes, he carefully climbed out and readied the scope.

Just as he was about to pull the trigger, he felt a bullet graze his cheek. Grimacing from the pain, the ex-cop nonetheless made the shot anyway. Seconds later, Tran was down.

“I got him, MacReady. It's over.”

“Nice... wait.. _shit, Jensen!_ You got hit!”

“Just a graze, I'm fine.”

“Looks pretty bad for a graze... here, let me look at it.”

“No really, MacReady... it's okay.”

“Jesus, agent, just shut up already and let me check.”

MacReady leaned in and gently grabbed Adam's cheek... and without warning, gave the augmented man a soft kiss on the lips.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the cliffhanger ending, felt like being evil XD
> 
> hope you guys liked the new chapter!


	7. Rumblings of Revolution

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter ended up being insanely long so I cut in two. I'll proofread the next chapter and upload it in a few minutes :)

_November 14 th, 2029 – outskirts of Czersk, Pomerania, Poland_

MacReady's kiss took Adam completely by surprise. It sent goosebumps down his spine.. it honestly felt nice.. for a moment. And then Adam's fear of intimacy roared in and he pushed his team leader away. He opened his mouth to protest but no words came out.

MacReady broke the silence.

“Right... sorry about that... really not professional.. just, freaked out it's all. Weird to see you get hurt at all, what with.. _all that_ ,” he said, pointing dramatically at Adam's augmented limbs.

“Because that's what I _always_ do when I'm concerned about a teammate's injuries, I kiss them. What's going on, MacReady?”

His team leader closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and shook his head slightly. “Shit, mate.... look, well, alright.. I _may_ have somewhat of a crush on you, and seeing that cut, the heat of the moment.. I acted on it. It was completely unprofessional and I should not have done that. I'm sorry.”

“I should be angry, but to be honest...” Adam hesitated. He didn't _want_ to say it, but overwhelming instinct was telling him it was best to do it anyway. “I didn't mind it that much. Maybe there is something going on here, but this is not something I can really have in my life.”

He nodded. “I get that... we've all got our stories.. I've all my ex-wives.. chalk this whole thing up to just adrenaline and move on?”

“Let's do that. Thanks, MacReady.”

“No problem,” he responded. However... if Adam's CASIE was anything to go by, MacReady was disappointed. So he was quite relieved when his team leader changed the subject back to the mission.

“Objective complete. Think you can get a way around the turrets so we can drag the body back?”

“Should be controls somewhere in the house,” Adam suggested.

 

* * *

 

The two agents were silent as they found a security hub, hacked into it, and disabled the security systems. They remained silent as they dragged Tran's unconscious body down the driveway and back into the car.

As MacReady drove them back into town, Adam couldn't help but feel slightly panicked. He really did enjoy that kiss, quite a bit. And he did find it nice to work with MacReady so closely on this mission... normally, he liked to do his tasks alone. But what did this mean? Was he really falling for his team leader.. the way his team leader was apparently falling for him?

Adam's life had been a shitshow ever he got his augs.. the whole disaster trying to find Megan, the Incident, the coma... but in Prague, he had finally carved out a new role for himself, as the Juggernaut Collective's inside man in TF29 Central Europe. Walking on the tightrope of being a double agent wasn't easy but he was able to do it, and, more importantly, on this tightrope he finally felt like he was _doing_ something, actually making a difference in trying to fix this horribly broken world.

This new development could ruin everything... what if MacReady really was an Illuminati agent? Doubtful, but who knew... or, what if shit hit the fan.. could MacReady be trusted to stand with Adam?

Could he really stay on this tightrope with his team leader getting this close?

Arriving back at their home base meant Adam had to put a pause on these thoughts. Acting like Tran was a drunk friend they were carrying home to prevent the civilians from freaking out took concentration.

 

* * *

 

The old man they arrested earlier did not react well to seeing them drag in Tran.

“Oy.. you killed him! How could you... Interpol, my ass! You're really ARC, aren't you?”

“Calm down.. he's just knocked out. We'll make a call for an extraction, and once they get here, you're a free man, like we promised,” Adam explained.

“Blech... knocked out too, huh? That your guys' thing?”

“Easier than trying to handcuff an armed aug. Now, hush up, before we change our minds about letting you go,” MacReady warned.

He got the memo and stayed quiet as they phoned in to Miller.

“Miller.. we got him. Call Chikane to extract us.”

“Perfect. Get any info out of him?”

“No,” MacReady admitted. “Had to knock him out to get him cuffed. But we can interrogate him once he wakes up in the Prague holding cells.”

“That we can. Chikane should be there in two hours. Keep him out cold until then.”

“Shouldn't be a problem. MacReady out.”

The two hour wait passed in silence. MacReady decided to take a nap, leaving Adam to guard their prisoners. If this was two weeks ago, Adam would have made fun of MacReady for taking a nap, probably getting in a few jabs about his age. But today, he welcomed the prospect of having a few hours of not having to talk to the guy. Maybe that's what MacReady wanted, too.

Keeping true to their word, when Chikane arrived, they let the old man go. He didn't say much... just walked out. He'd likely tell everyone he worked with in this town that Interpol arrested his boss. That would get the Illuminati's attention, if Tran really was working for them. And that sat just fine with Adam.. either they get real information about Tarvos out of this guy, or he gets to draw the Illuminati in closer. Either works.

 

* * *

 

_November 14 th, 2029 – Prague, Czech Republic_

“So... an ARC smuggler. What else do we know about him?” asked Delara, in that oh so annoying tone of hers.

Delara Auzenne, the resident psychologist, was down in the holding cells at TF29 headquarters in Prague with Adam, MacReady, and Miller. Miller placed her in charge of interrogating Andrew Tran—or, as Miller and Delara only knew him by, Janusz Bačinský—and determining his links to ARC. Adam and MacReady were relying on Delara uncovering his identity as Andrew Tran... and now, they struggled on how to guide Delara to that conclusion, without making it obvious what they knew.

“Well, for one,” Adam began. “He doesn't seem particularly Polish. No fluency in the Polish language and when speaking English, has a fairly heavy Chinese accent.”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning his name is almost certainly an alias.”

Delara gave Adam a quizzical look. “People migrate, Adam. You lived in the US, Miller here lived in Australia, now you're both living here. Just because Bačinský is clearly of Chinese origin, doesn't necessarily mean there's anything nefarious.”

“Obviously, doctor. I'm not a racist. But it's unusual for migrants to change their names to try to hide their birth identity. That's something immigrants to America did _way_ back in the day. Not something anyone does today, unless they have something sinister they need to hide.”

Delara threw up her hands. “I'm just saying.. don't leap to conclusions. Going back to what I asked.. what else do you know about him?”

“That he was smuggling neuropozyne to Marchenko and company,” MacReady snapped. “It's in the reports I wrote. Maybe you should read them before asking me to repeat it all to you.”

“Relax, Duncan. I read the reports. I'm just trying to make sure we're all on the same page. Work with me, we're all on the same team here.”

MacReady bristled at the use of his first name. Adam couldn't help but chuckle slightly.. he didn't mind Delara's habit of calling all the agents by first name, but it seems MacReady did. His voice remained terse as he responded.

“If you're on the same team, you'll have access to the bloody report. Everything you need to know.. _is in there_.”

Miller interjected, wanting to avoid a confrontation.

“I think we can all trust Doctor Auzenne's handling of this. Come on, let's head back upstairs. Doctor Auzenne.. I'll send Doctor Philips down to revive Bačinský.”

“Wait... neither Jensen nor I are going to be joining Delara for the interrogation?”

“No,” Delara said. “Interrogation is a delicate thing, and I'm trained for it.”

“So am I, doctor,” Adam pointed out. “I _was_ in the Detroit SWAT, and I _do_ have a CASIE augmentation. I've gotten info out of people in the field pretty well, I might add.”

“Even so, Adam.. best to do this by the book. If I do need help, though, I'll be sure to ask you,” Delara responded.

 

* * *

 

As they climbed back up the main floor, Miller entered the infirmary to get Doctor Philips, leaving Adam & MacReady alone on the walk up to the top floor.

“I _do not_ like that woman!” MacReady said angrily to Adam once Miller was out of earshot. “With that smug face all the time, second guessing everything I do, that maddening tone.. taking control of this whole interrogation for herself.. I mean, come on.. it's not like we're just shoot-em-up soldiers. I was in spec ops, you were a SWAT team commander.”

“That doesn't sit well with me, either. We both really should be down there.”

Hearing their commotion, Aria walked over.

“What's up with you two? Did the Poland mission go alright?”

“Hey Aria. The mission was a success. Jensen and I got our guy, relatively fuss-free. The issue is the aftermath.”

“Aftermath?”

“Aftermath named Delara Auzenne,” Adam explained. “She's insisting on handling the interrogation of the suspect all her own. Even though MacReady & I are trained for this sort of thing, too.”

“Well, she is our resident psychiatrist. Suspect interrogation is one of the main reasons why we got her in the first place. Besides, shouldn't you be appreciating the time off? Both of you have been working like crazy for weeks.”

MacReady sighed. “Time off is nice... say, you two want to get dinner somewhere?”

“Sounds great. Adam, you in?”

“Sorry. Need to see my mechanic about my left arm. Probably just a minor scratch, but still. Better safe than sorry.”

“Right.. you do that,” MacReady said.

Adam could hear the disappointment in his voice. Seems like MacReady wasn't exactly okay with “forgetting about” their kiss earlier.. did he want to move things forward after all?

For now, Adam had a visit to Koller to distract him.

 

* * *

 

“ _Koller.._ _are you free_ _?_ ” Adam asked over Infolink as he made his way through the checkpoint outside Praha Dovoz.

No response. He must be busy. Ah well.. he made his way over to Překážka anyway. If Koller didn't get back to him by the time he made it there, he'd just go home.

And sure enough.. just as Adam cleared the checkpoint outside Čapek Fountain station, he finally got a reply.

“ _Jensen! Sorry about that.. I'm all up in something big, really big... but I can squeeze you in, if it's nothing serious._ ”

“ _Just a scratch. I'm sure it's fine but I want to check it out anyway_.”

“ _Sounds good.. come over._ ”

Wondering what Koller could possibly be up to this time, Adam made his way over to the Time Machine.

Koller was actually in the office of the Time Machine for once.. a rare thing when the bookstore was closed. Normally he stayed in the underground lab when not tending the store.

“Well, this is a surprise Koller. Why are you up here?”

“Plans, Jensen, plans! You know how the police are being.. well, annoying as hell?”

“Obviously. I live here, Koller.”

“Ah.. But you're not _from_ here! So.. do you know what this Saturday is?”

“It's the seventeenth.. wait, isn't that..”

“Yes. It's the 40th anniversary of the start of the Velvet Revolution. The 17th of November, 1989... fifteen thousand marched in the streets to say they were fed up with the communist police state. Cops tried to stop them... but then in just a few weeks, we won!”

“Wait... _Koller, you're not_...”

“Yes. We marched to take down the cops 40 years ago, we'll do it again. Same day.. exactly 40 years apart. Then we'll see if the cops want to be on the right side of history or not, won't we?”

“Koller.. this is the age of drones and bots. This won't exactly be very _velvety_. A lot of people will get hurt.”

“But that's where the _plans_ come in, Jensen! Drones can be disabled!” Koller exclaimed. “I'm getting everyone I know in on this.. hack all the drones, blanket the city with EMP! We'll do this! Say... you've got those crazy augs of yours.. want in on this?”

Adam shook his head. He had enough on his plate without trying to guide a revolution.

“I'm _way_ too busy, Koller.”

“That's too bad... anyway.. let's check that arm of yours. Come, let's head downstairs now, eh?”

“Sure. You know.. you never answered my question. Why were you up here? Can you not _make plans_ downstairs?”

“Meeting with people, talking strategy! Not everyone I know is invited into my lab, you know?”

 

* * *

 

“Everything looks fine with your arm.. that's just a scratch. Nothing is wrong.”

“Thanks, Koller. Relieved to hear it.”

“Anytime.. and hey, call me if you change your mind about Saturday, eh?”

“Trust me. I won't.”

There was still some time left before curfew, and there were plenty of shortcuts to take in Překážka to dodge the checkpoints. A sewer let out from Koller's lair, from there a narrow alleyway bypassed a checkpoint to reach the square outside the metro station, and from there, the route through Svobody Beer and the sewers back to his apartment. Martial law sucked, but Adam's knowledge of Prague's little shortcuts was invaluable to making it suck less.

When Adam got back home, he was surprised to find Alex waiting for him.

 

* * *

 

“Alex... what are you doing here?”

“Well, you're gonna get your wish... Janus is coming this weekend. But there is something you have to do first, or he won't come.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And boom.. Koller and Delara Auzenne have made it into the story.


	8. Meeting in Hostivice

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> note - this is a double update, make sure you've read Chapter 7 :)

_November 14 th, 2029 – Prague, Czech Republic_

“He's actually coming, this weekend? For real?” Adam asked, incredulously. He half expected Janus to bail on this, and certainly wasn't expecting it to happen so quickly.

“Yep. He's got everything set up, he's confident we can pull this off. But he wants.. a distraction. Something to keep the police and the surveillance teams looking away from the meeting site. Plus it's something we're planning to support anyway”

“A distraction? Does he have anything in mind?” Adam asked.

“He does. You know the Samizdat paper here? Their editors have escaped to France...”

“I know, I helped them do it.”

“You did? You never mentioned it to me.”

“There was a lot going on last week, Alex. Too busy trying to deal with London and all.”

“Right.. anyway, back on topic. They're in France but some of their members are still here, and they're planning something big for this Saturday.”

“The re-enactment of the Velvet Revolution? My mechanic told me about it. He asked me to help out, but I declined.”

“Well, you're going to have to go back on that, man. Janus wants you to make sure this march goes ahead. If they can do this, they can get thousands on the streets, and nobody gets shot, or at least, not many do, it will send a message. There will be protests all over the city, the police will be in full panic mode. And.. it's also the perfect opportunity for Janus to slip in and meet with you.”

“Sure.. but why do I have to do anything? I'm dealing with trying to expose Tarvos this week. We got Tran, he's in the holding cells in Prague.”

“That's great, Adam. Really, it is. But we can put that on hold.. we're not going to get this opportunity again. And this is already risky enough as it is.. this whole plan needs you and your skills, Adam. Don't you want to meet Janus?”

Adam sighed. This was way bigger than anything he'd want to get involved in, and it was a big risk to his cover. But he didn't see any other way.

“I'll do it. Koller—my mechanic—is all up in this. He can properly point to where I'd be most useful. Is the Collective already involved, in any way?”

“We're helping Samizdat get the message out. We're planning to start it at 4pm. Still working on the location, but we'll have it outside a metro station, so people can get there easy enough. We'll have our hackers on guard, to make sure cops don't try to shut down the trains. But contact that Koller guy.. he'll know more than me about logistics and where you can help most.”

“Got it. We'll see what Koller says.

 

* * *

 

“ _Koller. You there? So it turns out.. I'm in for Saturday._ ”

“ _Wonderful! I knew you'd come round. So.. how good are you with_ _that fancy remote hacking aug of yours?_ ”

“ _I can shut down drones, camer_ _a_ _s, turrets.. for half a minute each. Not much better than an standard EMP grenade._ ”

“ _Ah.. but I think with some work we can get more than that!_ _How much do you_ _know_ _about hacking in general?”_

“ _Bits and pieces._ _I rely on my augs quite a bit to make sense of it all_.”

“ _Ah, ok.. well, I'll send you a little something a friend of mine wrote. It's a guide on how to splice malicious code into firmware.. if you can get that, well.. I think you could use it to throw a virus onto the drones._ ”

“ _A virus? Whose virus? What does it do_? _”_

“ _It can screw with the.. how you do say it.. the locator system! Get those drones to think their_ _guard routes_ _are_ _somewhere else_.”

“ _Sounds farfetched, Koller. But send me this stuff. Make sure it's encrypted email. I'll try my best_.”

“How did it go?” Alex asked.

“I'm in. Apparently my job is hacking drones. He didn't really give me details, but he's sending me some reading material and some malware code. Something about locator systems.”

Alex looked stunned. “You mean... it actually exists?”

“What do you mean?”

“Janus said someone in Samizdat claimed to write a virus that inverts latitude and longitude co-ordinates for embedded GPS systems.. if that was applied to drones in Prague, they'd try to scurry off to the other side of the world.”

“They'd all just disappear then? Wouldn't they die of battery failure before they travelled that far?”

“Yeah, in theory they would. In practice, the city government would notice that something is wrong and do a remote reset. But it would take a few hours, probably... Janus was impressed by the idea but didn't think it was possible.”

“But it sounds like this Samizdat guy really does have it. This is really big, Alex... we could shut down the city's automated defences for hours... that will be the biggest thing the Collective has ever done.”

“Yeah, but it sounds like you need to read these reference materials first. Check your emails, see if you have it yet.”

 

* * *

 

The guide Adam got in the mail was surprisingly intuitive. Even without any real knowledge of computer science he was able to follow what it was talking about. If he could upload a copy of the virus into his remote hacking aug's fireware, he was sure he could get it done.

“ _Alright Koller... I can_ _do this, at least technically_ _. What's the plan then? How do I actually do this? Do I have to upload it into every_ _single_ _drone in the city?_ _Because that's not possible with just me._ ”

“ _The virus is not set to activate until 3:45pm on Saturday. And the city's drones are constantly sending data wirelessly to each other.. the virus is designed to.. what's the word? Ah, propagate.. yes, propagate between drones. Smart, eh? Just put it on a few drones in a spot where lots of them congregate and it will spread to all of them by Saturday._ ”

“ _Alright. Jensen, out_.”

“Okay, so Alex.. do you happen to know where the city's drones are maintained?”

“Yes, actually. Read about in a police report last month. It's a big facility out near the airport. Why? You need to break in?” Alex asked.

“Probably not.. just get near the place, close enough to use my remote hacking aug on one of the drones heading in for servicing.”

“Just.. be careful. Not many people wonder around that area. Especially not augs.”

 

* * *

 

_November 15 th, 2029 – Prague, Czech Republic_

Adam headed out the door at exactly six in the morning, hoping to get out to the drone depot as early as possible, so he could still make it to work on time.

He checked the location... it was just south of the airport, outside city limits in the suburb of Hostivice. Getting there by suburban train was easy enough in theory, but one of the new rules of martial law was that augmented people licensed in Prague were banned from exiting city limits without approval from the national government, which was a pain in the ass to get. Adam was exempt from that rule as long as he was working on TF29 business.. but he wasn't exactly on TF29 business at the moment.

Deciding he'd wing it with trying to get the tickets, he headed over to Čapek Fountain station and began the trip to Růžička station. Although still largely in ruins, the police had re-opened the station with temporary structures.

After the usual morning grilling at the checkpoint outside Čapek Fountain, and a short metro ride, he found himself in the lobby of Růžička station. It felt odd to be back here... just a week earlier he had come here in a rush to steal evidence from the State Police before they could destroy it.. and a few days before that, well.. it had been the bombing. Trying not to think of that occasion, he made his way through the mess of cardboard and temporary cladding to the ticket office.

“Oy, a hanzer! You're going on a train? What of your papers?” snapped the ticket agent as soon as she saw him.

 _Lovely people_ , Adam thought bitterly as he pulled out his papers, and turned on his CASIE (after all, this could get dicey). “Level Orange, Interpol agent. Need a same-day return ticket to Hostivice Station for official business.”

“Hostivice? Outside city limits. You can't go there without a Minister's Special Travel Permit.. special regulation in effect during the duration of the Emergency,” the ticket agent snapped.

“Check your paperwork. I'm an Interpol agent, operating under TF29's authorization law. I'm exempt from those requirements.”

The lady said nothing as she scanned Adam's papers to verify. “This checks out.. what is your official business for Interpol?”

“Classified. Level Red operation. I cannot say anything more.”

'Level Red' was the standard line TF29 used when it wanted to cut through police bullshit. Czech officials, including cops and ticket agents, couldn't legally deny TF29 anything, or ask any questions at all, if they used that line. Technically, though, the police had the right to see paperwork proving something was Level Red.. so this was a big bluff.

“I need to see paperwork.. but.. there's a long line of customers I need to get through and I don't have time for this. Here, take the damn ticket. If you're lying...”

“Thanks,” Adam said, snatching the ticket and heading into the station.

 

* * *

 

The ride to Hostivice wasn't that long, and from the station it was only a few minutes walk to the outer walls of the depot.

No one was around, and there was a steady stream of drones flying in and out. As long as he didn't try to breach the walls of the facility, they would remain peaceful.

Adam chuckled. This is like taking candy from the baby... a short remote-hack job and the virus was planted. He actually smiled as he walked back to the station... such an easy mission.

Unlike almost every other train station in the country, there were no segregated waiting areas for augs & naturals in Hostivice station... perhaps because Prague's suburbs had so few augmented citizens, they decided not to bother. For this reason, Adam faced numerous uncomfortable stares from practically everyone on the platform. He checked the screens; seven minutes before the train came. He decided to stand off to the side to avoid attention as much as possible... and who should he run into there but...

“Jensen! What the bloody hell are you doing out here?”

“MacReady? What are _you_ doing out here?”

“I live here, Jensen! But I don't think you do!”

“You live all the way out in the suburbs?”

“Yeah, I like being away from everything. Feels safer, especially given.. well, you know what we do. But answer me: _why are you out here_ , at seven-fifteen in the morning? Wait... did you..” A look of dismay formed on MacReady's face.

“Did I _what_ , MacReady?”

“Did you... get lucky with someone?”

Adam actually laughed. “Seriously? Of course I didn't.”

He couldn't possibly fail to notice the look of relief on his team leader's face at those words. Clearly.. MacReady's crush was strong. It was actually kind of cute.. his super-intense team leader was now acting like a schoolgirl.

“So.. what _are_ you doing out here?”

“There's a breakfast cereal they sell out here that's really hard to get in the city,” Adam lied.

“Breakfast cereal. Why am I _not_ surprised? So... you came all the way out here.. getting on a suburban train as an aug.. just to get some breakfast cereal. I'm guessing they didn't have any? You're not carrying any shopping bags.”

“No. All out. Annoying, but that's how life goes.”

MacReady chuckled, and was about to respond, but at that moment a message came out over the intercom.

“ _Attention, all passengers. Train service to and from Prague has been suspended by military order. No further updates are available at this time. Repeat: All service to and from Prague has been suspended,_ ” the message rang, repeated in Czech and in English.

Amidst the chorus of groans and angry yells from the commuters on the platform, Adam and MacReady exchanged dark looks.

“I'm going to infolink a message to Miller, see what's going on,” Adam volunteered.

“ _Miller? You there_?”

“ _Jensen? Yes, what's up?_ ”

“ _Train service across city limits has been shut down, and Agent MacReady & I are stranded in Hostivice. What's going on?_”

“ _Why are you in Hostivice? Actually, never mind that... what do you mean, shut down? By state police?_ ”

“ _'Military order', apparently. Did anyone tell TF29 anything?_ ”

“ _No... this is my first hearing it. I'll get on the horn with the state police, figure out what the hell this is. You two hang tight, wait until this blows over before heading in._ ”

“ _Roger. Jensen out_.”

“Miller has no idea. He says just stick around here for now.”

“Great.. well.. we've got nothing to do,” MacReady said. “...and there's no places around here that will let an aug inside. Let's head over to my place.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can totally imagine MacReady as the type to live in some quiet suburb, away from all the things that irritate him. Adam & MacReady are in for an interesting morning, though.


	9. Let's Do This

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note - a spoiler for Black Light has appeared. Basically a synopsis. However, that stuff is also revealed through emails, background info, etc. in Mankind Divided for the most part.

_November 15 th, 2029 – Hostivice, Central Bohemia, Czech Republic_

MacReady lived in the ground floor of a duplex, about a ten minute walk away from the train station. It was quite spacious inside, nicely furnished, and very neat & tidy. Clearly, like Miller, MacReady's military background was reflected in his home.

“Nice place,” Adam commented.

MacReady snorted. “It's a house, lived in by a grown man. What do you expect? Cups and bottles and dirty clothes lying around everywhere, like some frat-boy flat?”

Adam bit his lip. Well.. let's hope MacReady never had reason to visit _his_ place.

“So.. you didn't get that cereal you wanted, and I eat breakfast at work.. so I'm guessing that means neither of us ate? Why don't I make us a fry-up?”

“Oh.. no that's okay. I really don't eat breakfast these days.”

“Jensen, when we finally get into the damn office we need to shout Delara down to a pulp in order to interrogate Tran, and you can't do that on no food, so you're going to sit down on my couch and eat what I make. Understood?”

Surprised at the sudden return of Mac-the-angry-soldier, Adam said nothing but sat down on the couch and stayed silent as MacReady fried up bacon, beans, eggs, and some sausages. He wasn't going to lie.. it smelled really good.

A surprisingly short time later Adam found himself presented with a large plate of food.

“Thanks, MacReady.. and wow, this the most British looking breakfast I've ever seen,” Adam remarked, looking at the plate full of beans, sausages, fried eggs, and the black pudding.

“Well, I'm sorry I couldn't make a Big Mac.”

 

* * *

 

The meal was eaten mostly in silence. Eating a homecooked meal together in MacReady's apartment forcefully reminded Adam of their.. _situation._

After they were done, Adam volunteered to put both sets of dishes in the dishwasher. He couldn't help but notice MacReady staring at him quite intently as he bent down to put the plates in.

“Alright.. screw it. Jensen, we need to talk.”

“About?” Adam asked apprehensively.

“You know perfectly well what about. What happened in Poland.. look, I said let's just move on and ignore it, but I don't think I can do that. I said I would be fine, I thought I would be.. but I can't stop thinking about you. There. Sue me.”

Adam sighed, and returned to the couch to sit next to his team leader. “To be honest, I've been thinking a lot about you too since then.. guess we need to talk more about this.”

“We do,” MacReady said, relief in his voice.

Adam hesitated. He wasn't sure how much he could trust MacReady with his life story. “It's not that I don't like you... but I'm not sure if I can do this. I'm pretty broken, MacReady. I've got one hell of a life. I've almost died twice. First time, I woke up with half my body replaced. Second time, I woke up in a facility that was half-prison, half-clinic. My last girlfriend stole my DNA and is now off at Versalife, using it in God-knows what kind of disturbing ways.”

If only MacReady knew... Adam had a very dark suspicion about what a certain object in the VersaLife vault at Palisade might be. He didn't look too closely at it once a quick glance made him suspect what it was, and then he tried to put it out of his head.. but the thought disturbed him, nonetheless.

“Your DNA? Seems kind of random, no?”

“Yeah, well...” Adam took a deep breath, then took a leap of faith. “You know how us augs need their neuropozyne? Well.. I don't. I've got some ultra-rare mutation in my DNA, my body tolerates implants naturally.”

“Shit.. so she ran off with a copy of your genome to VersaLife, to make drugs based on that trait. That's.. I'm sorry, mate.”

MacReady leaned forward and put a hand on Adam's shoulder. The ex-cop shuddered mildly at the touch but nonetheless, it was doing wonders to put his mind at ease.

“I didn't even know about it. She got my DNA, found out about my.. ability... before I was ever augmented. And then I woke up, half my body gone.. and the LIMB doctors were all amazed at the non-rejection, saying they'd never seen it before... thing is, you know what? Sarif knew about it, too. Megan told him. That's the reason why Sarif hired me in the first place, to use my DNA... and that's the reason why Sarif didn't hesitate to replace everything he could with metal, he knew my body could take it. And then when Sarif went belly up, Megan ran off with the data to VersaLife.”

Now that his mouth was open, he couldn't close it. It was an incredible relief to let all this information out, and he kept going.

“I was actually at Panchaea when the Incident hit.”

Not exactly true—technically he had been in Singapore when it started.. but close enough.

“I was doing security for Sarif, who was also there. They found me weeks after Panchaea collapsed, floating around in the Arctic Ocean. The cold water and my health implants must have kept me alive, although I was unconscious. They dumped me in some clinic in Alaska, that was really more like a prison, for those 'impacted' by the Incident. Here's the thing though.. I was one of the lucky ones who didn't go crazy during the Incident. I was out for a year, woke up.. I ran away from the clinic, hid in a robo-truck to get back home.. and ran into TF29 in Detroit, some time later, helped them out, and boom.. that's how I got my job.”

Silence fell as Adam finished his rant. It wasn't a complete story, obviously, but it nonetheless felt amazing to tell it.. it was as though a twenty-pound weight had been lifted off his neck.

And in that moment.. MacReady leaned forward more, and pulled Adam into a soft, gentle hug. No words came out between them for almost five minutes as they just enjoyed each others warmth.

Adam was overwhelmingly comforted by his team leader's warmth... in his arms he felt more peace than he'd felt in years.

He gently pulled back from the hug, took MacReady's hands in his own, and looked him in the eyes.. with shades withdrawn.

“Tell you what, MacReady.. let's give this a shot.”

“You mean it?”

“Yes. I wasn't sure if I could take any more intimacy in my life, but these past few minutes have made it clear.. I need this right now.”

MacReady smiled and leaned in for a kiss.

There was no holding Adam back this time.. he eagerly dove in and returned the kiss. Adam's enthusiasm seemed to be a big turn on for MacReady, as he then started rubbing his hands all and up down Adam's back... This got Adam going, as the few parts of organic skin he had left had become super-sensitive.

“Christ, Jensen.. it's just your back, not your cock,” MacReady chuckled as Adam moaned from the backrub.

“Well, when most of your body is metal the skin is that much more special,” Adam pointed out.

“Right.. the metal... that's going to be a little weird for me, I've never been with an aug..”

“I'll leave my shirt on, then. But you don't have to.”

And in that moment Adam tugged off his team leader's shirt. With the power of his augmented arms it was an easy task.

“Tsk, tsk. Naughty, are we?”

“You know you like it.”

With a devilish grin MacReady pushed Adam down on the couch and positioned himself on top. Normally MacReady wouldn't have been able to do that, but Adam had let all of his guard down.. it felt so wonderful to be pushed around like this, while still being able to trust the person doing it.

“So... before anything goes any further.. I have to ask... do you... is...” MacReady stuttered.

Adam chuckled. He knew exactly what MacReady was trying to ask. “No, I do not have augmented genitals.”

“Oh good. Well, in that case...”

Adam gasped as MacReady groped him through his pants. And before he could say anything, down came his fly and out came his throbbing member.

“Impressive equipment, agent.”

As much as he wanted to retort, Adam found he couldn't talk much. MacReady was gently stroking his length and that was enough to make his mind quite clear. Starved of intimacy for so long, everything was very sensitive.

And without warning, MacReady's mouth closed around Adam's cock.

Forget gasping, Adam was flat out moaning. He hoped MacReady's upstairs neighbours weren't home.

“Jesus, MacReady... ahh.. ahh.. shit, I'm not going to last long if you keep going...”

His team leader seemed to take that as encouragement and he accelerated his pace, taking it deeper and harder in his mouth... and sure enough...

“Holy.. damn... _oh, fuck, oh, god.. OOOOHHHHH_ ,” Adam cried out as he shot thick ropes of cum down MacReady's throat.

Adam raised his hands to his forehead. Despite barely doing anything himself, the orgasm had taken out all of his energy.. he felt a twinge of guilt at not being able to do anything to reciprocate.. but then MacReady came up and cuddled against him.

“There,” MacReady said, a tone of softness in his voice that Adam had never heard before. “That'll take the weight off, won't it?”

And with an affectionate nuzzle of his beard onto Adam's cheek, the two men laid together in calm, blissful silence. Soon Adam drifted off to sleep.

 

* * *

 

Some time later, MacReady gently shook him awake.

“Oy, metalhead. Or sleepyhead. Both work in this instance. We're heading into the office now.”

Adam groaned as he woke up. “Trains running again?”

“No, but Miller says he wants us in now and TF29 will pay for a cab.”

“Uuullghh... how long was I asleep?” Adam asked, still groggy.

“About two hours. I didn't realize you were the type to fall asleep afterwards, Jen.... _Adam_. We really should use first names at this point.”

Adam was taken aback by the use of his first name but it felt nice to hear from MacReady's mouth. He decided he'd do the same back.

“Well, Duncan.. normally I'm not.. but it's been a really long time, even since I'd done anything by myself, and well, this whole thing is overwhelming.. in a good way.”

“Call me Mac. I've never liked my first name much, truth be told. And wow.. am I really that good?”

“Don't flatter yourself, _Mac,_ ” Adam said teasingly.

“That's not going to happen. As I said to you once before.. they broke the fucking mould when they made me. Anyway... the cab just turned onto my street according to my phone. So let's go.”

 

* * *

 

The two agents held each others hands quietly for the whole cab ride into the city. Thanks to Adam being augmented, they were stopped at checkpoints several times, and the cab driver was quite grumpy when he finally let them out on the street in front of Praha Dovoz.

 

* * *

 

 

“You guys made it in! Which reminds me.. Adam, what exactly were you doing out in Hostivice?” Aria asked with a winky smile. Clearly she suspected _something_.

“He was buying _breakfast cereal_. Some type he couldn't get in the city. Fucking _breakfast cereal_ ,” MacReady answered.

“What can I say? We all have our vices. Well, mine are actually booze and cigs, but you know.. cereal is at least a healthier addition to the group.”

“Anyway... is Miller around?” MacReady asked. “He seemed pretty desperate to get us in, what with buying us a cab ride and all that.”

“Yes. We're actually having a meeting in the briefing room in ten minutes. Something's come up, apparently.”

 

* * *

 

The entire counter-terrorism team was called in for this briefing.. clearly, this was something big.

“We've got a situation, everyone,” Miller announced. “There's a probable threat, right here in Prague, this Saturday.”

“Saturday? That's Freedom and Democracy Day.. some terrorists planning to make some fucking noise?” MacReady asked.

“Not exactly,” Miller said. “Various underground, Darknet, and hactivist groups are calling for a rally on Saturday, to protest martial law. State Police picked up on the chatter. They're concerned about the potential for terrorist activity and are asking our help to co-ordinate security.”

Adam banged his augmented fist on the table, catching everyone by surprise.

“No!” he exclaimed loudly. “Miller, _potential_ for terrorist activity? Is there even _any_ credible threat? Freedom of assembly is a right, regardless of whatever martial law bullshit the government may have passed. With all due respect, sir.. I will _not_ , under any circumstances, participate in the use of TF29 resources for political suppression. We're an anti-terrorist task force, not the thought police.”

To Adam's surprise and relief, most of the agents assembled, including both MacReady and Aria, started clapping in agreement.

“Calm down, everyone!” Miller barked. “Agent Jensen... I don't like it either, but orders are orders. We're not instructed to shut down the rally.. merely to enforce any additional checkpoints or movement restrictions the city may instate for Saturday.”

“Which is the same thing as shutting down the rally! You can't march without a route!” Jensen yelled. “I'm sorry, Miller... but I refuse to take part in this mission, in any way shape or form. If you're not okay with that.. you can have my badge, right here and now!”

To emphasize his point, Adam threw his TF29 access keycard onto the table. MacReady, Aria, and three other agents followed.

“He's right, Miller,” MacReady said. “This goes against everything Task Force 29 is supposed to stand for.”

Miller sighed. “I can't exactly carry this out if half my agents refuse... look, I don't like this either, truth be told, but they're orders from Lyon... but, tell you what.. I'll inform them that we lack resources to carry out any enforcement of checkpoints. That's not exactly a lie, if everyone refuses to be out in the field. So we'll just stick to staying in here, on standby, watching the city through the cameras, and we'll move out only if there is an actual terrorist strike. That sound good to everyone?”

Adam and his fellow agents nodded in agreement.

“Good. Everyone, dismissed.”

As soon as Adam left the briefing room to go back to his desk, he was interrupted by a tap on the shoulder.

It was Delara. “Adam, can I speak to you in my office? It's important.”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And there we have it! Finally official! 16,000 words in, lol.. well, it's slow burn, what can I say?
> 
> Note: November 17th is a legal holiday in Czech Republic, called "Struggle for Freedom and Democracy Day"; commemorating the 1989 Revolution. I figured English-speaking people in Prague would probably just shorten it to "Freedom and Democracy Day", hence why I had Mac say that.
> 
> Note 2: I can now say, based on my plot outlines for the future, that there will be spoilers for the System Rift DLC coming up in a few chapters. I've added that tag to the fic accordingly.


	10. It's All Worth It

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long delay, was away from home all last weekend and had a bunch of personal stuff happen but here we are with a new chapter!

_November 15 th, 2029 – Prague, Czech Republic_

Adam followed Delara into her office. He had a suspicion on what this was about, and sure enough...

“I overheard what happened in the briefing room. You're pretty passionate about this issue, aren't you?”

“Yeah. I joined Task Force 29 to bring justice to terrorists, not suppress peaceful protests.”

“Figuring out where to draw the line between 'terrorism' and 'protest' has been a struggle for ages, Adam. But did you think of it another way? That in this climate, a rally could easily become violent? Did you not think that preventing a rally could help keep everyone safe?”

“Technically, you're right, Delara. But by that logic.. the Czechs would have never overthrown the communist regime forty years ago. You have to give the people some leeway, or nothing can happen.”

“So you think the current situation is comparable to a communist dictatorship? That's a little overdramatic, Adam. The Czech Republic is a democracy.”

“Yes, it's a democracy. But the government's policies are not helping. They're driving the wedge between people deeper, not healing it, and their solution to terrorism is to lock down the city, which only motivates terrorists more. If the people in this country want to protest that, that's their right, Delara. I'm not going to compromise on that.”

She said nothing as she took notes. This made Adam suspicious.. did she want him to say more? Why was she treating this like an interrogation?

“Well, seeing as how you have no more questions, I think we're done here.”

Adam turned around to leave. As he was about to leave, Delara piped up. “One more thing before you go, Adam. Miller and your team came to a compromise for this Saturday's mission, but keep in mind, you have to hold up your end of the deal. That means you have to stay here and help with the surveillance.”

_Shit_ , Adam realized. Saturday was when Janus was coming... he couldn't be in the office all day. He didn't say anything but walked out. He'd have to come up with an excuse to leave.

 

* * *

 

Adam went upstairs to his desk to file his after-action report about the mission to Poland. A relatively short mission, there wasn't much to say, so it was done quickly.. or at least, it would have been, if a certain someone hadn't interrupted him.

“Hey there, agent. Do you have a minute?” asked MacReady. His tone was somewhere in between mischievous and eager.

Adam recoiled backwards in surprise. He wasn't expecting MacReady to be this open about their relationship in the office.

“I do... what's up?” Adam asked curiously.

MacReady said nothing but grabbed Adam's hand and gestured outside the door. Getting the hint, Adam got up from this chair and followed MacReady. His team leader led him down the stairs and into the holding cells.

“Perfect. Now we have a chance, Adam,” MacReady said eagerly.

“For what?” Adam asked, puzzled.

“ _To interrogate Tran_. Delara is in a meeting with the Lyon brass for the next hour and a half. We can do this alone.. we don't have to hold back. And everyone in the office probably thinks I led you down here to fuck. It's the perfect opportunity.”

“You mean, you _didn't_ lead me down here to fuck?”

“Well, that too, but we can do that _later_ ,” MacReady winked.

Damn.. Mac's tone got Adam all riled up and he felt himself get hard. But Mac was right.. now was the time to interrogate Tran. Shaking his head in attempt to clear away his arousal, he turned on his CASIE aug and got ready.

They turned the corner to approach Tran's cell and walked inside. Tran glared at them as they entered. “Who the hell are you two?”

“Counter-terrorism team. We're here for some more interrogation,” Adam replied.

“The only one interrogating me is that lady, the psychiatrist,” Tran snapped. “What the hell are you doing?”

“Interrogating you as well. You can't honestly believe the Task Force would only have one interviewer? Now.. Mr. Janusz Bačinský... or shall we say, Mr. Andrew Tran.. ready to co-operate?” MacReady asked.

Tran did a double take on hearing his real name, and then tried to sloppily hide his surprise. “Andrew Tran? Not my name, sorry.”

“Yes it is. You just gave it away with your reaction.”

“Fine. How the hell did you know?” Tran asked.

“A little thing called gathering intel. We have our methods.” MacReady responded.

Before he could respond, Adam pressed on. “Andrew Tran has an interesting story, you know. Indicted for war crimes in Australia, briefly worked for Tarvos before disappearing.. care to tell us how exactly you came to be Janusz Bačinský, the smuggler from Czersk?”

“I'm not going to say anything,” Tran said, adamantly.

Adam stuck out his nanoblade and pushed it up agianst Tran's throat. Close enough that he could feel it, far enough that he didn't hurt him. MacReady shuddered.. he remembered when Adam did that to him, although as it was his arm and not his throat, it was less scary.

“I think you are. Now.. I _would_ say you that you were just trying to run away from your Australia legacy, but it seems your new employer, Tarvos, was more than willing to overlook that detail. Why run in that case?” Adam asked.

Tran said nothing, but glared at Adam. He would have to try another tack. Let's see.. the Illuminati had a track record of killing off anyone who risked exposure. He saw it happen with Orlov, and almost happen with Arie van Bruggen, back in the day. Perhaps now was the time to make Tran think he was next.

“You've got an interesting connection to this place, Tran. When you disappeared from your job at Tarvos, TF29 Station Shanghai started to investigate.. put funny enough, they got an order from the central office to cease investigation. Highly classified papers. Who from Lyon did you bribe?” Adam asked.

Sure enough, there it was.. the look of panic in his face as realized he was going to get burned.

“Shit.. fine, hotshot. Yes, I'm ex-Belltower, yes, I was hired at Tarvos. Tarvos is just re-branded Belltower... I thought everyone knew that at this point. And yes, I disappeared. That wasn't me running away.. Tarvos sent me to.. ah.. handle their sensitive shipments, in Poland. Protect our activities from ARC, who kept undermining us at every turn.”

“ARC? Undermine activities? What activities? Are you saying Tarvos is involved in smuggling?”

“Not smuggling. Protecting shipping interests. Very important interests, to very important people. You don't want to mess with them.”

“Maybe I do, if they can buy off Interpol's top brass,” MacReady answered.

Tran laughed. “Everyone can be bribed.”

“Who did you bribe, then?”

“I don't know. I wasn't the one who did it.”

“You've got to know _something_ , Tran,” MacReady said threateningly.

Adam mulled over this thoughts, thinking of how best to get information out of him.. and then he saw something on his radar that made him panic. Someone was coming downstairs.

“Well then,” Adam said. “We'll come back later when you're ready to talk more. Come on, Mac.”

As they left, MacReady tapped on Adam's shoulder and whispered, “ _Did you see someone on your radar_?”

“ _Yes_. _Let's head into the empty cell at the end of the hall_.”

 

* * *

 

Looking out with his smart vision, Adam saw that it was Miller who came downstairs.. and furthermore, Miller walked into Tran's cell. He couldn't hear what they were saying, but something was happening.

“Damn it MacReady, I can't tell what they're doing in there!”

“Who?” MacReady asked, blankly.

“Miller. Miller is the one here, he's in Tran's cell, and they're talking.. but I can't hear them and my augs aren't helping.. dammit!”

“Well.. at least it's not Delara.”

“Why are so calm, MacReady? We weren't supposed to be down here at all.. what if Tran tells Miller that were just there, this could get--”

Adam was interrupted by MacReady throwing a hand over his mouth.

“Shh. Later. We did what we can, and we'll get back to him later. We'll come in in the middle of the night when we know nobody but a few IT guys will be in. But for now.. _well, take your damn clothes off, agent_.”

MacReady's commanding tone got Adam instantly hard but the sane part of his brain was still active, at least for now. “What? Now? When Miller is still down here?”

“Eh, he can't hear anything that happens over here. Though you _are_ going to have to be quieter than you were this morning. Now, hurry it up. Clothes off. I'm hard as a rock right now and if there's ever going to be a time to get used to your half-metal body it's now, when my dick is in charge.”

Adam did as he told, hoping that MacReady was right about that point... they hadn't really confronted the augmentation issue yet. As he stripped off he felt a surge of self-consciousness... how was this going to go?

“Christ, that's a lot of metal.. but you know what? It's well done actually... certainly looks a lot better than my last wife...”

“Your third wife was augmented?”

“Yeah.. well.. long story, but let's not talk about her right now. Turn around.”

Adam did as he was told.. and gasped as MacReady leaned on him and started gently groping his butt cheeks.

“ _Pretty fine back there, eh_?” MacReady whispered right into his ear.

“ _You haven't seen anything yet_ ,” Adam smirked. He decided he wasn't going to let MacReady call all the shots. He leaned backwards, pressing his bare ass into MacReady's still clothed crotch.

“Getting naughty, are we mate?” MacReady joked, and gave Adam a spank.. and then, recoiled back in pain.

“Ow! What the...”

“Shit.. I know my ass doesn't _look_ augmented but the muscles in there have all been replaced, it's a lot firmer than it looks.. Mac? You okay?”

“Damn it... look, I'm trying to get past this but how many surprises are there going to be in there?”

Adam sighed. He felt his erection deflate as the mood changed.

“A lot. Look...” Adam turned around and gave MacReady a soft kiss. “We might have to slow down a little.. it took me years just to get used to my own body, I can only imagine what it must be like for you.”

“I... I appreciate that, mate. Sorry for all this.. I know how much it sucks to have things stop..”

“It's fine.. we can wrap this up later, after I give you a run down of all my augs.. really, we should have done that from the get go.”

MacReady didn't say anything, but hung his head, staring at the ground.

“Hey.. cheer up, Mac. It's alright.”

MacReady looked up and nodded.

“Come on.. let's go see if Miller is still there.”

 

* * *

 

A quick check of his radar revealed that Miller was indeed gone... and so was Tran!

“Shit! MacReady.. Tran isn't in the cell anymore!”

“What? Where is he?”

“I don't know, can't see him anywhere nearby...”

Adam rushed out the cell and ran upstairs, MacReady right behind him. And when they got to the top..

“There you two are? Is it true?” Aria asked cheekily. “You two are a thing now? Everyone saw you two head down hand-in-hand!”

“What? Oh.. well, yes we are,” MacReady replied. “Listen, have you seen---”

“That's so exciting! And so cute... I think you two are perfect for each other,” Aria smiled.

“Yes, Aria, you can squee over us all we want, but listen.. have you seen Miller?”

“He just left. That guy you got in Poland is being transferred out of our hands.. he's going into Polish custody. Dr. Auzenne found nothing that is of interest to us, apparently.”

“WHAT?” MacReady shouted, enraged. “But we have proof... he was connected to Marchenko... did she just give up?”

“I don't know. But she knows what she's doing, I'm sure.”

Adam put a hand on MacReady's shoulder. “I'm sure she does. Come on, Mac... let's back upstairs.”

MacReady took a deep breath and followed Adam back up to the counterterrorism office.

 

* * *

 

“This is bad, Mac,” Adam said as soon as they were back inside the confines of MacReady's office.

“You seemed calm enough downstairs.”

“An act, Mac. You should have known that. Besides... this is confirming a big suspicion of mine.”

“Which is what?”

“That Delara Auzenne is a problem. She lets Tran go that quickly... we think someone high up at TF29 helped conceal Tran's disappearance from Tarvos... connect the dots, Mac.”

“You think she's in on this?”

“It's certainly looking likely.”

“Christ, this is big stuff, Adam... I'm not so sure we should be sticking our noses in this any further.. I have a bad feeling.”

“Probably the best decision. Let's just move on with our work,” Adam said. “I'm ready to give up on this if you are.”

That was a lie, of course. As soon as he got home he'd be talking to Alex about this and tracking down Tran again. As nice as it was to have this new relationship with MacReady in his life, it was clear his team leader was not ready to join in on Adam's fight against the Illuminati.

This meant having to keep his double life a secret from his boyfriend. A daunting task... Adam asked himself why he let himself get into this relationship in the first place.. and then promptly answered his own question when MacReady replied.

“Of course I am.. let's forget about this business over a nice meal somewhere. I think it's time for a proper first date, don't you?

Adam smiled and nodded. MacReady was worth it.. he was worth all the troubles it caused. And who knows.. walking on the tightrope of being a double agent might be easier with something to distract him from it.

 


	11. Diving In

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oy boy! First part of the chapter is a bit of a comic relief after all the heavy plot this story has to offer, but it gets right back into the action at the end, don't worry :)

_November 15 th, 2029 – Prague, Czech Republic_

A “proper first date” turned out to be the restaurant right next to the office. One of the few sit down restaurants in the city that still let augmented people inside, even if they did require them to enter through a separate side door. MacReady, being the gentlemen he was, walked in that door with Adam, despite the strange looks he got.

This restaurant was very traditionally Czech, offering a smattering of heavy meat dishes and seemingly limitless beer, and notably, the lack of any English menu—quite a rarity in the Prague of 2029. Adam could barely read Czech but MacReady was reasonably good at it.. and it made him quite dependent on his team leader, a situation he was not used to.

“Wait, what? The svíčková comes with kale?”

“No, silly, that's knedlíky—dumplings. Literally the most common thing you can expect with svíčková.. and _kale_? Seriously, how long have you lived here?”

“Only a few months, Mac, stop making fun of me.”

“I've only lived here for a year and a half which really isn't much longer, and you don't see me struggling. Maybe if you were less anti-social...”

“Yeah, yeah, I get it... hold on, I think that's the waitress.. _svíčková,_ _jedna_ _pivo_ _,_ _prosím_ ,” Adam ordered. As far as he knew, that meant 'svíčková and a beer, please'.

“ _Pivo??? Prazdroj? Budějovický Budvar? Svobody? Velkopopovický Kozel?"_  the waitress asked, throwing up her hands." _K_ _terý_?"

The only thing Adam could offer as a response was a glazed look.

“Oy. She's asking what beer you want. There's like thirty beers they can sell you, mate.”

“Oh. _Svobody,_ _prosím_ _,”_ Adam said to the waitress.

She nodded, wrote it down, then turned to MacReady to get his order.

 

* * *

 

“To bring back an old phrase, that was cringe-worthy. Seriously, mate, learn the language.”

“I've been busy, Mac. Plus, you know, being augmented kind of creates distance.”

“Fair. That _would_ explain why you ordered a Svobody. That stuff is gross. I hear it's brewed in a basement in Překážka. Nasty.”

“I happen to like it. I know the owner... Teresa is an amazing person, she does all kinds of great things in this city. And sure, the beer isn't the best... but I like to know that I'm supporting her. Besides, well.. this is blasphemy in the Czech Republic, but I don't really like beer to begin with.”

“Right... you're one of _those_ guys. Just drinks whiskey all the time. Well, alcohol _is_ meant to be social. Not just something to get drunk alone on, you know.”

“If you can actually hold your liquor, whiskey is plenty social, Mac,” Adam teased.

“Hey, let me tell you, I can hold my liquor,” MacReady declared.

 

* * *

 

After their food came, the two fell silent while they ate. Adam used the opportunity to contact Alex.

“ _Hey, Alex.. you there?_ ” Adam asked subvocally.

“ _Yeah.. what's up?_ ”

“ _Tran got away... you free tonight_?”

“ _Fuck!_ ”

“ _You're telling me.. we've got to meet up, plan this out.”_

“ _Right.. is now good_?”

“ _No, actually.. I'm on a date, believe it or not. Maybe midnight-ish_?”

“ _A date? Well then.. sure, midnight it is. LIMB clinic is the easiest place for me to get to after curfew... there again?_ ” Alex asked.

“ _Sounds good. See you later.”_

“You alright, mate? You just stopped eating all of a sudden.”

“What? No, I'm good.. just, a mid-meal break that's all. Svíčková is heavy stuff.”

“But that's what makes it so delicious. This city may be going to shit but the Czechs really do make amazing food. Best part about living here,” MacReady declared.

“So you're happy to have moved here?” Adam asked.

“More or less. Got really tired of Britain after a while. And I'm _done_ with the Middle East. Though if I could have picked anywhere to live, I'd have moved to Canada.”

“TF29 is opening a new division in Montreal, you could always transfer there.”

“Eh. Learning Czech was enough, don't want to learn French too. Besides, why would I move anywhere when you're right here, cutie?”

“Cutie?” Adam repeated back. “That's your new name for me? Doesn't seem very fitting.”

“True. Maybe _grumps_ is more suitable,” MacReady teased.

 

* * *

 

After dinner the two of them took a walk down the river.

“Hey.. so Adam.. about what happened earlier.. well.. being with an aug will take some getting used to, but I promise I'll work on it.”

“You said your third wife as augmented.. how did that work out?”

“Yeah, well.. she got augmented while we were still together. She was one of those people who just bounced around from one gig to another. One day she decided to start a bike delivery business, and decided she needed augmented legs to bike faster. And later she decided she wanted augmented arms, to be able carry more stuff. Of course I was the one who ended up paying for all of the surgeries...”

“Is that why it ended?”

“No.. she got too pissed at me for always being off in the desert. And then one day, after I quit the SRR, I came home without telling her, I was going to surprise her with a 'guess what, I'm home for good now!' and lo and behold, found her in bed with another man. Things ended pretty quickly then.”

“Is that when you joined TF29?”

“No.. a little afterwards. When I decided I was going to be single forever. And then of course _you_ enter the picture and change that. I've always thought it would be better to be with a bloke rather than a woman but I never found the right guy, I guess.”

“Well, here's hoping it will stay that way. I never thought I'd ever be a relationship again either, but here we are, walking down the riverbank on a freezing November night.”

“Yeah. Freezing as fuck. Should we head to your place? I would offer mine but getting you on a train to Hostivice is a pain.”

“Sure... I'm warning you though, my place isn't exactly neat.”

 

* * *

 

“Good god mate, _not exactly neat_? This is a disaster! And why the hell do you live in _Překážka_? TF29 pays well, you know.”

“True, but consider that not many places in Čistá will rent to an aug.”

“Oh.. fair... but still, can't you keep your bloody place neat?”

“My life is a mess, Mac, don't expect my house to be any different.”

Sighing, MacReady pulled Adam in for a hug. “Well, hopefully I can clean you up. You're a goddamn mess but you're worth it.”

Adam gave MacReady a soft kiss on the cheek, and then motioned for him to sit down on the couch.

“Alright.. so as for what happened in the dungeon at TF29.. we can't have any more surprises. So I'm going to give you that rundown of everything I've got.”

 

* * *

 

“Wait, so your _entire_ ass is augmented on the inside?”

“Sort of. All of the muscles back there are replaced, and there's the dermal armor as well that's all over.”

“And... on the front?”

“Nothing replaced on the outside, as you found out yourself this morning. Fully organic dick and balls.”

“ _On the outside_.. so what, _are_ there robot muscles in your dick?”

“No. But my abs are synthetic, so that does change how I thrust.”

“I'm pretty sure I'm going to be the one doing most of the thrusting, mate.”

“Oh, well look at you all in charge. Kind of adorable when I could probably gut you like a fish if I wanted to.”

“Yeah, but you wouldn't. And that's where I win. I'm not afraid to use my power.”

“Care to back that up?” Adam asked playfully.

“Don't test me, Adam.”

“Oh, I'm testing you.”

“Fine. Bedroom. Now.” MacReady ordered.

 

* * *

 

Adam had only just gotten on the bed when MacReady grabbed his hands and held them down behind his head. He actually had to manually disable his reflex boosters to allow it to happen, but sure, if MacReady wanted this illusion of being in power, why not. And to be completely honest, it was working for Adam.

Holding Adam's hands down with his left hand, MacReady began taking his own clothes off with his right hand.. and soon Adam had a very full view of his team leader.

Despite being in his mid-forties, MacReady was quite fit and still sported an impressively well sculpted six pack. Only the assortment of faded scars across his chest really showed his age. But Adam didn't get much time to admire his chest.. soon his team leader clambered over him and shoved his crotch into Adam's face.

“Take it in your mouth, agent. That's an order.”

Adam didn't need telling twice.. feeling the need to one-up him, Adam leaned forward, closed his mouth on MacReady's throbbing cock, and took it all, deep into his mouth and throat.

If the augmented man's mouth wasn't preoccupied, he would have smirked at MacReady's reaction. As “in charge” as he was, he clearly wasn't expecting Adam to go this far, and that, in turn, gave Adam an edge in their power game. And even with MacReady's detailed briefing on the extent of his augs, Adam was willing to bet that he hadn't factored in the fancy rebreather that meant he could deep throat for however long his biocells lasted.. and Adam had a full charge right now.

“Chrissst.... Adaam... what the.. .oh man, that's the rebreather, holy.....”

_Look who's in charge now, bitch_ , Adam smirked to himself.

Panting, MacReady withdrew, released his grip on Adam's hands, and climbed down, bringing the two agents face to face.

“Well, look who thinks he's such a big shot now.”

“Shut up, you loved it.”

“I did. Now turn around and start getting yourself ready. Like I said, _I_ do the thrusting in this relationship.”

“Getting myself ready? I think you're forgetting about the synthetic muscles. I can make them as loose as I want, ya know.”

MacReady's eyes lit up and he immediately flipped him onto his back. Adam barely had time to command his augmented muscles to loosen when in rammed MacReady's cock.

_Fuck_. Now it was Adam's turn to involuntarily moan. _Damn_ , this felt good... Adam had only ever bottomed for Megan's strap on before, and the real thing was _so_ much better.

“Heh heh, you like that, don't you?”

“Oh, don't claim victory yet, Mac,” Adam teased. And with a quick neural command, the muscles that now surrounded MacReady's cock began to tighten.

MacReady gave a loud yelp of surprise and pleasure, and began thrusting harder and harder, his moans getting louder and louder. And so it wasn't long before MacReady blew his load deep inside Adam, punctuating the bedroom with cries of orgasmic delight.

Adam started to get up, preparing for MacReady to dismount, but MacReady shoved him back down and growled. “I'm not done yet, so don't you fucking move.”

“Jesus!” was all Adam could say as MacReady kept right on thrusting, with just as much ferocity as before.. until...

“ _Oh god... shit, I'm coming again, oh god, oh.... YES! YES!_ ” MacReady cried as he shot a second powerful load into Adam.

MacReady let out a loud sigh, withdrew from Adam, and collapsed onto the bed.

“Well.. looks I'm good enough to get you off twice, so... who's really in charge here, Mac?”

“Still me. Don't flatter yourself... I can almost always go twice. Special talent of mine. And I've still got some fight in me now.”

And with those words, MacReady's hand closed around Adam's cock and he began to aggressively jerk Adam off. It didn't take long before he pushed Adam over the brink, and the augmented man shot his own load all over his team leader's hand.

“See? _I'm_ the one in charge here, and don't you... for.. forge... forget...”

“Mac?”

“forge... uh,” was all MacReady could say before he collapsed into a deep sleep.

Adam was about to make fun of MacReady, probably a crack about his age, for falling asleep, then remembered he did that exact same thing this morning, after a lot less stimulation. Oops.

 

* * *

 

MacReady didn't budge for hours.. he remained deeply asleep in Adam's bed. And this posed a particular problem.. Adam had to leave his apartment to meet up with Alex at the abandoned LIMB clinic in Dávný district.

He considered waking up his team leader, but realized how awkward it would be to kick the man out of his apartment.. not to mention rude. Plus, what excuse could he possibly come up with?

Well.. hopefully he'd just remain asleep and not wake up in the next couple hours wondering where Adam was. But just in case, Adam scribbled a hastily written note and left it on the kitchen table, saying he was just outside for a quick walk. It would hard to explain that with martial law and all, but it was the best he could do.

“ _Alex? You still on for the LIMB clinic? I'm heading out of my apartment now_.”

“ _Yeah, man, about that... can we pick a new meet-up point? There's a huge_ _crowd_ _of cops outside the clinic.. what do you say we meet in the Metro tunnel? I'll start walking towards Čapek Fountain station, you start walking towards Pilgrim station. We'll run into each other at some point_.”

“ _Sure. See you soon._ ”

 

* * *

 

It took some stealth work to get past the crowd of cops milling around Čapek Fountain plaza, but soon enough Adam made his way into the station and into the tunnel. He wasn't very far in when he met up with Alex.. she clearly had a much bigger head start out of Pilgrim station.

“I think this tops every other meeting place we've come up with.. down here in the middle of a shutdown metro tunnel.” Adam remarked.

“Yeah, but it's safe and secure. At least until curfew ends and the third rail is reactivated, but you know.. we've got hours. So.. how the hell did Tran get away?”

“TF29 released him. Or rather, transferred him to local custody in Poland. Meaning, he'll probably get released by bribery soon enough.”

“Miller did this?” Alex asked.

“It looks like it, but it was on the advice of Dr. Auzenne, our resident psychiatrist. She was in charge of the interrogation and she said she found nothing, which according to protocol means we can't keep him anymore.. at that point he's just a common criminal, not our jurisdiction.”

“She found nothing? Did you interrogate him at all?”

“I did, although I wasn't supposed to. He flat out admitted that Tarvos is rebranded Belltower, and we started to get at why he was in Poland in the first place.. he didn't say it, but between the lines, it sounds like he was doing smuggling work _for_ the Illuminati.”

“You didn't push him further, get more answers?” Alex demanded.

“Had to leave. And when I got back, he was released.”

“Shit.. and I don't suppose you could have talked to this Dr. Auzenne? Unless you think she's in on this?”

“I do, actually,” Adam confided. “I've been suspicious of her from the start, and this only makes things worse. Plus.. she's going to a problem for this weekend, too.”

“Your meeting with Janus? How so?”

“Well, State Police have picked up on chatter about the planned demonstration, and they tried to get TF29 in to help with checkpoints. That's not happening, but we are all supposed to stay in the office and monitor the city all day.. basically, we're on standby to intervene in case of terrorism. I'm technically not supposed to leave the office at all for the whole day.”

“Shit.. well you're going to have to get away at some point...”

“I'm sure I can wing it when the time comes, but it is another fucking pain to deal with. By the way, how are the preparations for the march going?” Adam asked.

“Well enough. You taking care of the drones is a big help. We've hacked into the police comms network too, we're going to get all the cops distracted enough to leave the checkpoints understaffed for Saturday afternoon, so as many people as possible can get into the metro network. We're setting the start point of the march for just outside Monument station, so all people have to do is get on a train and they can get the rest of the way there.”

“And you've got people watching the trains, I hope?” Adam asked.

“Yes. On standby to make sure the transit authority doesn't shut anything down.” Alex replied.

“Sounds like we've got all our bases covered, or at least, as much as we can. You really think this will work?”

“It's probably the biggest thing the Collective has tried to pull off. We're literally starting off a revolution, man. This is what we've been working towards for ages.”

“Yeah, well.. let's just hope I still have my cover at the end of this. I won't be much use to the Collective if it ends for me here.”

"Don't worry, Adam... the way I see it, the Versalife break in was a bigger risk to your cover, and you came out of that one fine. As for Tran... ugh, this is annoying, but we'll get him. I'll get Janus and the rest of them on it immediately, keep track of where he ends up in the Polish justice system. Hopefully we can get a hold of him before he disappears."

"You do that. We've gotta get more answers of this guy."

Alex nodded. “Hey, on a lighter note, Adam.. how did your date go?”

“Well, he's currently sleeping at my place, so I'd say pretty great.”

“He? Huh. I didn't know you were into guys.”

“Eh. I go either way,” Adam explained.

“So.. he doesn't.. _know_ anything, right?” Alex asked.

“Nope. And I'm going to keep it that way. Don't worry.. I can handle this,” Adam reassured.

“I'm sure you can. Just.. be careful. Later, man.”

“Later.”

 

* * *

 

What seemed like an age later, Adam made his way back home. The note was still on the table, in the exact spot where Adam had left it, and he could still hear MacReady snoring away. He breathed a sigh of relief as he ripped up the note.. and headed back into the bedroom to cuddle up with his new beau for the night.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, I know.. couldn't resist more Rebreather Adventures :) Or the magic tightness control back there.. augmented sex must be fun.
> 
> BTW, if anyone is planning to go to Czech anytime soon, eat some svíčková. It's SO GOOD. I'm heading back there in June for my second trip there and it's the main thing I'm looking forward to :)
> 
> (And I kind of just made it headcanon that Svobody Beer is also a microbrewery.)


	12. Velvet.. or not?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ugh! Long time since last post, I know, but life got in the way. Hope to be more regular with the posting now.

_November 16 th, 2029 – Prague, Czech Republic_

Adam slept like a baby cuddled up next to MacReady.. and when he woke up several hours later, it was with a deep sense of contentment and relaxation.. a first in years. He felt around.. MacReady wasn't there, but he could hear the shower running from the next room over.

Smirking slightly, Adam turned on his silent legs and cloaking augmentations, and snuck into the bathroom, the door to which MacReady had left open. Sure enough, he was in the shower, turned away from the door. This was too easy... Adam turned off his clock and simply snuck into the shower, and firmly grabbed MacReady by the ass.

His team leader spun around.. “WHAT THE... holy... fuck, Adam, give me some notice!”

“More fun this way. And how are you on this fine morning? You certainly passed out last night.”

“I'm old, Adam. So are you. Us millennials aren't that young anymore.”

“Yeah, well, I hope you're not too old for.. _this_.” With a dramatic flourish of his hands, Adam grabbed ahold of MacReady's dick, still hard from morning wood. MacReady responded by thrusting into Adam's hand.

“Someone's getting naughty already, are we?”

Adam didn't respond, but instead grabbed ahold of MacReady's hand and placed it on his own throbbing member. MacReady got the memo and started rapidly stroking his augmented boyfriend.

The ever-vocal Adam let out of a moan of delight, soon drowned out by MacReady kissing him firm on the lips.

MacReady's hands started to roam around Adam's back... but they were careful to avoid his augs. He stuck to what was comfortable for him to touch, for now.

Clearly this wasn't _too much_ of a problem for MacReady because soon enough his breathing started to quicken, the tell-tale sign of an impending orgasm. A mischievous glint in his eyes, Adam accelerated his pace and reached down to bite his team leader's neck, leaving MacReady free to moan as he came with a series of loud gasps. Without skipping a beat, as soon as he felt the last drop of his team leader's cum spill into his hand, he dropped to his knees and took MacReady's swollen member into his mouth, bringing it all the way down his throat and keeping it there, with the help of the trusty rebreather. The aggressive deep throating was enough to get MacReady to his second orgasm quickly.. and good thing, too, because Adam was about to burst himself.

The augmented man withdrew and gave MacReady a big kiss while stroking himself.. and it didn't take long for Adam to spill his own load, cum splashing out, drenching his own augmented hand and squirting onto his team leader's belly.

 

* * *

 

After that rather hyper exchange in the shower, both agents needed some coffee and some time on the couch before they could even think about leaving. Age took its toll sometimes.

“So what does Miller have planned today? Do you know?” Adam asked. “Nothing would be nice... get some quick paperwork done and head home early.”

“That would be nice, mate, but I doubt it. He's probably going to want to go over scenarios for tomorrow.”

“Ugh.. the anti-terrorist surveillance crap.”

“Yeah, well at least we're just doing surveillance. Not running around being the state police's bitch, like they wanted. You did a good job talking Miller down.”

“Thanks, Mac. I do what I can. Let's say we head into the office now.. if that is what we're doing Miller will want us in early.”

Sure enough, the first thing that happened when they got in was Miller berating them for not being there earlier, followed by immediately jumping into mission planning.

 

* * *

 

“Alright.. so Chang, what have you got for us?” Miller asked.

Miller had tasked Chang with combing through DarkNet to try to determine what the protestors had planned.

“This whole thing is getting me freaked out,” Chang said.

“What a surprise, coming from you,” Adam teased.

“Hey, can you get serious here Jensen? I _mean it_ this time. Everything I found on DarkNet stressed how much this is going to be a non-violent protest. No weapons smuggling, no nothing.. they're telling everyone to respond to any attacks from police by singing _Kde domov můj_ , the Czech national anthem.”

“Wow. That is bloody terrifying.. singing an anthem! If they attack me with that terrifying weapon, I just respond with a verse of _God Save the King_ and they'll all drop dead, then?”

Adam laughed. Chang and Miller glared.

“Well, MacReady, that's what they're _saying_ they'll do. But it's too obvious.. there's something sinister planned. They're just trying to throw us off the trail. So we've got to stay _alert_.”

“Anything specific, Chang?” Miller asked.

“Yes. Lots of hackers appear to be helping with this, there are even some traces of the Collective's involvement.. there could be lots of attacks to the city infrastructure.”

Boom. This was Adam's chance.

“No doubt. If anything like that does come up, I'll head out. I've got all my hacking augs.. I'm best suited for field work to protect against cyberterrorism,” Adam volunteered.

“Good idea, agent,” Miller smiled. “That'll be your job. Be ready to head out at _any moment_ tomorrow, if I have to ask you to.”

“I will,” Adam smiled.

“Yes.. that would be best,” piped in Delara.

Adam wheeled around. There was something about that smug tone of hers.. and that comment she made yesterday in her office.. did she suspect Adam was involved in this? How much did she know?

Well.. for now, he just had to forget about it. Get through the rest of the day, and contact Alex at the earliest opportunity.. if they could pull this off, he had his excuse to leave the team and meet up with Janus.

 

* * *

 

“Ugh... what a day,” MacReady whined. “I don't think I've _ever_ spent that much time in a briefing before.”

“Well, we really don't have any clue what we're looking out for, so it makes sense. Plus you know the way Chang gets,” Adam pointed out.

The two agents were on their way for a quick snack at a pub before heading to their homes. They agreed that it would be best to spend the night apart... Adam was a severe introvert after all, and their relationship could be ruined without giving each other space.

“Fair. A real piece of work that one. Can't appreciate a joke.”

“Yeah. And _God Save the Queen_ was a good one.”

“ _King_ , Adam. It's _God Save the King_ now.”

“Sure thing, limey. I'll go tell the man upstairs to save an 80 year old guy, just for you.”

 

* * *

 

After bidding farewell to MacReady and beginning the trek home, Adam contacted Alex via infolink.

“ _Alex.. I've solved_ _tomorrow's problem, I think. TF29 said they'll send me out, alone, if there's evidence of cyberterrorism. I'd say the drone attack counts._ ”

“ _The timing of that works out._ _The drone attack goes off at 3:45pm, and_ _for the meeting w_ _e're going to do 4:_ _30_ _pm, in the sewers. I'll send you the_ _co-ordinates._ _Be there_.”

Adam's heart pounded... in less than 24 hours, he'd finally meet Janus.

“ _Don't worry, I will._ ”

In spite of how exciting this was, Adam couldn't help but feel nervous.. there was literally a revolution about to start and in spite of all the preparations the Collective and Samizdat made, he couldn't help but feel this would get extraordinarily messy. And on top of that, he was finally going to meet Janus for real.

 

* * *

 

_November 17 th, 2029 – Prague, Czech Republic_

D-Day.

Velvet Revolution 2.0.

The day of the meeting with Janus.

Adam awoke at five-thirty in the morning, after barely sleeping at all. Without MacReady there, sleep was difficult. Maybe it was a mistake to spend the night alone.. perhaps he'd make sure to have MacReady over tonight. That meant getting through the day, first.

He opened up the window and stuck his head out to look around. Still dark, but not a cloud in the sky, and it wasn't that cold. It looked like this would be a beautiful day, weather-wise. Well, maybe that would help turnout at the protest.

Alex had sent him one part of the co-ordinates by email, this morning. Given how important this was, she wasn't leaving this up to chance.. god forbid the Illuminati saw this. The rest of the co-ordinates were written on two separate papers, scattered at the Collective's various drop points around the city. The Collective cycled through drop points for each recipient, so Adam knew exactly where to go to get these two papers. And hopefully no one else did.

Miller wanted everyone there for seven, which was a tight schedule.. martial law was not over until six, and on top of that Adam had to fetch his co-ordinates before heading in. So he decided to head out early.. not the first time he snuck around the city's cops at night.

So he walked over to the front door, grabbed a trenchcoat, headed back to the bathroom, and climbed out the window onto the roof.

Crouching slowly across the roof, he turned on his smart vision.. three cops patrolling the street below. Using balconies as a cushion he dropped down to street level and worked his way around their patrols, heading towards the metro station. All of the cops were busy changing shifts and setting up the checkpoints for the day, so it was fairly easy to get past them and into the metro line.

 

* * *

 

Between having to dodge the cops and fetch the locations from the drop points, it was only natural that Adam would be a little late. Miller had arranged quite the set up for the day.

Huge screens were set up in the centre of the office where the IT workers normally were. Most of them were out of the office (it was Saturday, after all) so instead the place had been turned into a sort of situation room with cameras on everything. He had never seen the place so hyped up... it made Adam suspicious. Someone high up really didn't want this protest to happen, otherwise why would the entire Central European division be focused on it?

“Adam! You're late, Miller might have thrown a fit.”

“It's only 7:15am. It's difficult for me to travel, he should know that. Where is he, anyway?”

“Him and MacReady are having a one-on-one upstairs in his office. They should be down here by half past.”

“Impressive set up down here.. yesterday Miller said we'd only have four screens brought in, but there's seven.”

“Last minute decision. We wanted to add cameras for Wenceslas Square, plus some traffic diagrams. See this one here? It's using real time data from traffic cameras to build a heat map of pedestrian traffic across the whole city. Impressive, huh?”

It sure was.. a massive spider web of thousands of lines, one for each city block in the entire metropolitan area. “Yeah.. must be Chang's doing. That guy is scary.”

“It will be very useful when things start.. I mean, right now every street is mostly empty because it's early on a Saturday morning, but that will obviously change.”

It was all the same.. camera feeds blown up everywhere. Live charts of metro and bus ridership, schematics of checkpoints.. it was scary how much the police state could monitor its citizens.

 

* * *

 

The entire morning passed by in relative quiet. Same with the early afternoon. TF29 knew that the march wasn't planned until the late afternoon but they still vigilantly monitored everything, Miller paranoid that the planned times were a red herring. They did manage to catch some petty criminals through the massive surveillance, so that provided some interest.

Nonetheless, the mood became more and more tense as the afternoon ticked away.

And then it happened... around 3 o'clock, people starting piling into the metro stations.

“It's starting.. fare gates have recorded a 85% jump in the number of customers entering the metro system over the last twenty-five minutes."

“Why are they getting through? Wouldn't the State Police stop them?” Chang asked.

“Numbers spread too thinly across the city for the police to notice, plus there's no curfew in effect on weekend afternoons, so they can't really stop people from taking trains.” Miller answered.

“I wouldn't bet on that continuing much longer,” perked up Adam. “Someone at the city is going to notice and shut down the system.”

“You'd think.. but there's been nothing in that regard.”

“Actually...” Chang said. “Looks like there _is_. State Police ordered the Transit Authority to shut down all trains five minutes ago. But they haven't obeyed... not clear what's going on.”

“Concerning.. Aria, you look into that,” Miller ordered.

“Roger that.”

 

* * *

 

“Where are the crowds heading?” MacReady asked. “Můstek station is what we were most worried about, what's it look like there?”

“It looks.. like they're heading in different directions. There is a large crowd that looks to be heading that way, towards Můstek, but some are also heading west.. there's no pattern here,” Aria answered.

“ _Shit_.. multiple demonstrations.. there was no intel of that.. do we have adequate camera coverage outside Old Town?” Chang worried.

“Relax, Chang, we've got everything,” Adam dismissed. He checked his watch.. 3:43PM.. the drones would be leaving the city any minute now, assuming that virus worked...

“Got an update on the transit authority,” Aria announced. “And it's not good.. apparently the control staff have gone rogue, and are refusing to listen to state police. Security are trying to apprehend them but they've barricaded themselves in their offices..”

“Damn it! That's going to lead some major casualities, the State Police don't play nice.. how much of a fight will they put up? Aria, got any intel on what they're armed with.”

“Nothing, apparently.”

“Well, that should be... wait.. what's going on with the drones?”

Adam looked up. It was time.. sure enough, all the drones in the city had started heading southwest.

“They're all moving southwest.. but why.. there's nothing going on over there..”

“Not good,” said MacReady. “State Police would never order all drones to the same location. Rogue controllers at State Police?”

“No.. hold on.. apparently the State Police have lost control over the drones!” Chang screamed. “They're moving southwest, at full speed, and city staff can't get them to come back...”

“FUCK!” swore Miller loudly.. “they got their hands on the drones? That's _not_ good...”

“The police are trying to reset the network but it's not working.. the backup control system just crashed, some hacker just brought it down.. wait, that attack came from within the city...”

“Where? Trace it!” Miller barked.

“Somewhere near Vyšehrad..” Chang said.

“Alright.. Jensen! You're pinpoint on cyber attacks.. you get out there right now, find that hacker! Last thing we want is terrorists getting control of the city's drones!”

 

* * *

 

It was almost too easy.. Adam almost laughed as he made his way, not to Vyšehrad, but into the sewers, ready for his meeting with Janus.

The co-ordinates corresponded to a small pumping station, very near where Samizdat used to hide out, back when Adam had first met them. Odd spot, but Janus could be trusted to find somewhere safe.

As he approached the target spot, he activated his smart vision.. sure enough, there was a person there. Male, not too tall.. looked rather familiar, actually. Adam's heart starting beating very fast.. was Janus someone he already knew?

As he came within visual distance of the door, his infolink chimed in. It was Janus.

“ _Adam_ _.. turn on your smart vision_.”

“ _Already done_ ,” Adam replied.

“ _Now use it to look behind you. Discreetly._ ”

Puzzled, Adam did so.. and saw that there was a third person down here. One he definitely knew. And, unlike Janus.. this person was not good news.

 


End file.
